Lost
by lildevchick
Summary: Skywarp and Sideswipe find themselves stranded on an island somewhere within the infamous Bermuda Triangle. How can two bots on opposing sides hope to survive long enough for rescue when even the island itself is working against them? ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: This is my very first attempt at a Transformers fic. I've been a lover of the fandom for a very long time and finally decided to try my hand at TF-related fanfiction. Hope I did a decent job!

Inspiration for this fic came from Koi Lungfish's Lost in Transmission. Give it a read - it's well worth it.

I'd also like to thank Acteon Carolsfeld for reading over this chapter and giving me the courage to post this. :)

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><p>Slag it all to the pits! How did he get himself into these messes?<p>

Sideswipe groaned as he sat up and onlined his optics. His vision was static and it took a moment for his optics to cycle through their start up before he was seeing anything.

A sudden urge to purge his tanks overcame him and he fought the feeling down. Cursing inwardly, he brought a hand up and immediately realized why he felt sick- his depth perception was off. He couldn't see anything out of his left optic.

_Well, that's not good._

Frowning, he poked at the glass covering the sensor and realized there was a large crack running down the center. Normally that wouldn't prevent the optic from cycling on, meaning he must have ruptured something internal.

_Slag._

Utilizing his one good optic, he looked himself over to survey the damage he'd taken. He was covered in dents and scuff marks and the worst of the damage seemed to be contained on his left leg. The appendage was sparking a little at the knee joint, signaling that some wires had definitely been severed. That, he could thankfully patch. His optic, on the other hand, was another story entirely. He'd need Ratchet to fix that up when he got back to base.

He looked around him.

Scratch that. _If_ he got back to base. He was surrounded on all sides by nothing but trees that climbed so high they nearly blot out the sun. He was in a slagging forest. Still, his olfactory senses picked up the scent of ocean and sand coming from all sides. He knew exactly what that meant. He was in a slagging forest on a slagging island.

He couldn't recall how he'd gotten there right off the top of his processor as he found his thoughts addled. Judging by the damage to his optic casing, he'd definitely landed on his head.

His day just kept getting better and better.

Unable to access his most current memory logs, he decided to delve just a little further back. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to go back too far, because the further back he went, the less likely he was going to find the answer he was looking for. With a forceful exhalation of his intakes, he accessed his memory banks, attempting to lift the fog from his processor.

The last thing he remembered was jumping on Skywarp's back for a round of jet judo during their most recent battle with the Decepticons. He'd broken into his cockpit and started pulling on wires, which the purple jet decided he did not like in the slightest. Skywarp had barrel-rolled in an attempt to knock the red Lamborghini off, but the stubborn warrior had held fast and refused to be dropped. He hooped and hollered and had a general good time, until Skywarp flew up so high that they nearly broke the atmosphere. That was when Sideswipe decided he wanted the jet to go back down.

He reached in and tugged on another handful of wires and Skywarp decided he'd had enough. With an indignant screech that one would have expected to hear from Starscream, Skywarp rocketed downward at an alarming speed and it was all Sideswipe could do to get down on his front and wrap his limbs around the enraged seeker in a death grip. Before the jet could impact with the ground, he shot back up, before leveling a couple thousand feet over the battlefield. He performed another barrel-roll, but when that failed to dislodge the red twin, he picked up speed, performing a wide array of stunts that threatened to have Sideswipe purge his tanks all over the clueless bots down below. He was vaguely aware of Sunstreaker shooting at the con from down on the ground – anything to keep him from slagging his twin. Though, in hindsight, shooting Skywarp out of the sky definitely wasn't going to make him any safer.

Bluestreak took that moment to shoot out one of Skywarp's wings with a truly well-timed shot. Black smoke billowed from the mark, but the wing remained intact, allowing the jet to stay in the air, although he did seem a little unstable. Skywarp must have decided at that point that enough was enough because at that point he engaged his warp drive and the battle below them disappeared into a chaotic snowstorm.

Sideswipe really didn't have time to register the weather change, though, as Skywarp once more changed locations and they found themselves flying over the ocean in the middle of nowhere.

It was then that everything went to the pit.

A wave of pressure pressed in on him from all sides and he was sure Skywarp was feeling the same as the jet's thrusters sputtered and struggled to stay on. They began losing altitude quickly and Sideswipe was only somewhat aware that the two of them were screaming. Electricity crackled around their frames as the ocean rushed up to meet them.

In sheer panic, Skywarp engaged his warp drive once more, only to find it was malfunctioning and he could only move a few hundred feet in any direction. Sideswipe offlined his optics, terror seizing his spark as Skywarp teleported aimlessly as they fell, try desperately to regain some height. He dared online them a few moments later and was disturbed to find that he couldn't make heads or tails of which way was up or down.

He would have panicked, had he the time, but Skywarp teleported one last time, propelling the two of them into the ground.

Sideswipe growled to himself as he shut down his memory banks. Thankfully, he was only missing the data from the time of the impact to the time he'd come to. He briefly wondered how long that was as he cast another glance around.

He was lucky enough to have landed on an island instead of in the middle of the ocean, but that didn't change the fact that he had absolutely no idea where he was. He tried to access his navigation system, but it didn't respond to his commands. Irritated, he tried to open his chronometer, to figure out how long he'd been out, but that failed to respond as well.

A second desire to purge overcame him and he hunched over while he waited for it to pass. He felt like slag and he wasn't entirely sure he could attribute it to his malfunctioning optic anymore. On top of that, the crash landing had damaged him, but not badly enough for his systems to not be responding. Truth be told, the lack of reason for his current condition made him a little uneasy. This wasn't the worst situation he'd ever found himself in, though, so it was hard to get too worked up over it.

_Fraggin' Skywarp! This is all his fault._

With a groan, Sideswipe climbed to his peds, wobbling slightly on his injured leg. It held his weight fine, so the damage clearly wasn't all that bad. It still hurt, though.

He lifted two fingers to his helm. A switch on the side connected him to the Autobot communications link when pressed.

"Sideswipe to base. Do you read?"

He was met with audio-shattering feedback and with a small shout, he disengaged his comm link.

Frowning, he gave it another try, but when he was yielded the same result, he broke into a colorful string of curses.

Why he had thought his comm link would work when none of his other systems were operational was beyond him.

_This is definitely not good._

He fell back to the earth, landing with a thud on his aft and he slouched over sullenly. He was stuck Primus-knew-where and had no access to his comm link or to any of the systems that might offer him any explanations as to where and when he was. And because of Skywarp's stupid teleportation schtick, none of the Autobots had any clue where he was, either.

Speaking of Skywarp...a quick look around the area showed that Sideswipe had crashed alone. It was more than likely that Skywarp was somewhere else on the island and having just as much difficulty as Sideswipe was. It was also just as likely that Skywarp had come to and teleported the pit out of there. Sideswipe lashed out with his right leg, kicking at the ground like an angry sparkling. It wasn't helpful in the slightest, but at least it made him feel just a little bit better.

He was by no means a smart bot, but he was crafty. Surely he'd find some way out of this mess.

_Even if I do make it out of this, Ratchet's gunna slag me. And if Ratchet doesn't finish the job, Sunny sure w-_

He paused in his thoughts and slapped a servo to his faceplate.

_Primus, I'm a moron. Of course! Sunny!_

In his dazed state he'd nearly forgotten about the bond he'd shared with Sunstreaker. Much like spark-bonded mechs shared a bond, the two of them shared something similar, but much more advanced. They were two halves of the same spark. What one felt, the other did, too. What one knew, so did the other. And they ALWAYS knew where their other half was. The bond was like a homing beacon. Grinning like an idiot, Sideswipe immediately probed for his brother, sending a pulse along the bond in a form of greeting.

He got no reply and chalked it up to Sunstreaker being an afthat. He sent a second pulse and ground his dentas together when that went unanswered, too. Sunstreaker was notorious for ignoring him and it was possible he didn't realize he was missing just yet. If he had, then there was no way in the pit that Sunstreaker would currently be ignoring him. He could act like a complete slagger, but Sideswipe knew his brother cared for him.

"Damnit, Sunny!" Sideswipe shouted into the air. He sent another pulse.

There was again no reply and Sideswipe drove his fist into the ground in his frustration. With a look of disgust, he pulled his servo free, shaking the dirt from his joints. Obviously, trying to contact his brother wasn't working, so he'd have to try something different.

In an uncharacteristic display of pure focus, Sideswipe honed in on their bond, trying to find where Sunstreaker was. If he had to make some sort of raft and sail off in that direction, then Primus-damnit, that's what he was going to do.

A feeling of dread slowly overtook him as he continued to feel out for his brother and continued to find nothing. He frantically sent a wave of pulses, one right after the other, frantic in their need to reach him. With each unanswered pulse, Sideswipe wanted to scream.

It was only when he felt the emptiness on the other side of the bond that he truly started to panic.

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><p>AN: Thanks for reading! Review please? :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review, fave, and subscribe to this story. It means a lot. :)

Inspiration for this fic came from Koi Lungfish's Lost in Transmission.

I'd like to thank Acteon Carolsfeld for reading over this chapter and making sure I wasn't just rambling. xD

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><p>Calm down. He needed to calm down.<p>

Which was easier said than done when he couldn't feel his twin through their bond.

Terror gripped his spark as he tried to force himself to relax, but the more he tried, the more he panicked. He continued sending pulses along the bond. He sent a string of them every breem, desperately hoping that Sunstreaker would reply.

_Think. Think! There must be some perfectly rational explanation for this._

Sideswipe ignored the voice in the back of his processor that suggested Sunny may have been deactivated. He ignored it because he refused to accept it as fact. Aside from his systems being screwed up, he felt otherwise fine. If Sunny were dead, he'd know. The last time Sunstreaker had been severely injured, Ratchet had thought he might not make it. His twin had been in stasis for nearly an Earth week, and the entire time, Sideswipe had felt less than whole. He was constantly in pain, his entire being aching from the lack of his brother's presence in their bond. He felt sick and was emotionally unstable. Bots who simply offered him words of comfort found themselves on the receiving end of Sideswipe's frustration and anger. Nearly a dozen mechs wound up in the medbay for varying degrees of injury.

It was after Sideswipe had unintentionally thrown Cliffjumper through a wall that the command unit had decided enough was enough. They all felt pity for Sideswipe, but that didn't change the fact that they had started fearing for the remainder of the crew in the Ark. Sideswipe had turned completely volatile, taking on Sunstreaker's less-than-pleasant personality traits.

It was not entirely unexpected, either. Sideswipe found himself slagged more often than he cared to admit, and every time he would finally come out of stasis, he was amazed to hear just how bad Sunstreaker had gotten during his time spent offline.

Now, Sunny wasn't a friendly mech, by any stretch of the word, but when he couldn't feel Sideswipe through their bond, he got downright nasty. So it came as no shock when the same happened to Sideswipe under similar circumstances, even though he was nowhere near as bad.

After seriously injuring Cliffjumper, Ratchet had forced Sideswipe to stay in the medbay. He'd kept him under heavy sedation while Sunstreaker fought to stay online, simply because he feared what Sideswipe might do next if left unchecked.

Now, though, was completely different. Sideswipe wasn't experiencing any of the same feelings he'd felt back then. If Sunstreaker had been deactivated, then Sideswipe had no doubt that all those horrible feelings he'd felt would be a thousand times worse.

The bond was inactive and he couldn't figure out why, but he was sure that Sunstreaker was fine. At least...he hoped.

He expelled a puff of air forcibly from his intakes. Worrying was getting him nowhere and he had much more pressing concerns to deal with. For starters, his busted leg.

He drew the injured limb up and angled it slightly to the side so that the still-sparking wires were visible. He ran a thumb over the tear in his joint and winced when it caught over a jagged piece of metal. He pulled his servo back to look at it, and watched as a faint trickle of energon rolled down his palm. He wiped it away with his fingers and turned back to his knee. He dipped his thumb back into the wound, mindful of the tear this time and felt around. None of the movement caused him any serious discomfort. The wound was bleeding only a little and he considered himself extremely lucky that no major energon lines had been ruptured. With some dismay, he noted that the wound was somewhat numb as he probed around in it – the severed wires weren't carrying the signals of pain from his processor to the site of the injury due to the disrupted connection. That could be potentially bad if he didn't get the wound patched up. If he couldn't feel it, then there would be no way for him to know if he caused further damage to the area as he moved around. It would be best to get a basic patch-job done so the wound couldn't get worse.

He magnified his one good optic until he could easily see the bundle of tiny, severed wires in his knee. Small metal bits extended from his fingers, acting as smaller digits, enabling him to tie together the two ends. There was nothing he could do to patch the wires further; they would repair themselves over time. Next, he turned to the gash in his joint.

Sideswipe pulled a welding torch from his subspace and heated the metal until it was pliable. The numbness of his injury paid off here as he could only just barely feel a twinge of pain emanating from the tear. When the metal was soft enough, he pushed it back into place and used the torch to fuse the edges together. He surveyed his work when he was done.

It was nothing impressive and it would have to be reopened and re-patched once he got Ratchet to look at it, but for now, it sufficed.

He climbed to his peds, bracing himself on his right leg. He slowly shifted his weight to his left, testing if the patch would hold. Just because the wound was mostly numb, didn't mean he didn't feel pain in the surrounding area, especially when holding up all his weight.

He was relieved to find that despite feeling some pressure where he'd welded the wound shut, it didn't buckle underneath him and drop him back to the floor. Still, he wanted to be entirely sure he would have no problems. He'd have to take it easy for the next couple joors or risk possibly reopening the wound.

He looked around, trying to pinpoint any landmarks that might help him as he searched the island. To his consternation, everything looked the exact same. He grunted his annoyance and decided he'd waited around for nothing to happen far longer than he should have. He picked a direction and headed off.

He would have preferred to have a heading, but since his navigation system still refused to open at his command, he was stuck with doing things primitively, which on this planet, got him nowhere. He didn't know how to survive in the wilderness the way humans did. Under normal circumstances, he'd have access to all of his systems and wouldn't have to worry. But since he was currently slagged, he would just have to make do. Hopefully he wouldn't wind up walking around in circles.

And no matter how hard he tried to reason with himself, he just couldn't shake the unnerving feeling that someone was watching him.

/-/

Sunstreaker punched the closest thing to him. Which, unfortunately, happened to be Brawn.

"Hey!" The mini-bot shouted as he toppled over. He looked down at his chassis and frowned at the fist-shaped dent there. He didn't say anything further, though, since he didn't have a death wish. He was silently thanking Primus that the wound wasn't any worse, which was thankfully due to his thick armor.

Sunstreaker spun around, a scream of rage flying off his lips. Bumblebee was the next unfortunate mini-bot to get in his way. Or, would have been, had Optimus Prime not stepped in and grabbed his arm before his fist could make contact.

"Sunstreaker, that is enough. Calm yourself."

The yellow Lamborghini's optics narrowed to dangerous slits, their normal violet turning almost white. A growl deep in his chassis was the only reply he bothered to give. Jazz dared to get close to the sociopathic mech and place a servo on his shoulder. Fearing the worst, the rest of the Autobots present shrunk back in fear.

"'Streaker, man, just chill out. There's no need to go all postal on us."

Sunstreaker rolled his shoulder, effectively knocking Jazz's servo away. He whirled around to face the Porsche, feet sliding apart as he took on a stance that suggested he would charge.

"Jazz is right." Optimus added, before Sunstreaker could do anything in retaliation. "I promise you that we will find Sideswipe. Once we return to the Ark and have gotten our wounded to the medbay, we will turn all our efforts to locating your brother, wherever he may be. You have my word."

The battle with the Decepticons had been over for nearly two joors. It was shortly after Megatron had called retreat, that Sunstreaker had realized his brother was nowhere to be found. Most of the nearby Autobots were amazed he'd stayed calm for as long as he had, but the inevitable explosion wasn't very far off.

From what the others could gather, seeing as Sunstreaker was a mech of action, not one of words, he was having trouble reaching his brother through their bond. Most knew that that was never a good thing and that one of the only reasons Sunstreaker wouldn't be able to reach his brother, would be if he were deactivated. No one wanted to give voice to those words, though, for fear of Sunstreaker's wrath.

It was also possible that Sideswipe had simply slipped into stasis somewhere, which wasn't a much better prospect considering no one knew where he was. Sunstreaker quickly grew out of control when his twin wasn't present in the bond link. Another possibility was that Sideswipe had shut his brother out, but any who thought that immediately purged the thought from their processor. Sideswipe knew how Sunstreaker got and he relied on his yellow twin just as much as Sunstreaker relied on him. He'd never intentionally shut him out.

And it didn't help that Sunstreaker was quickly becoming so irrational that he couldn't even notice that he wasn't in any terrible pain, meaning Sideswipe had to still be online. His processor was too much of a jumbled mess for him to realize that, though.

Ratchet stepped up behind the yellow mech, using the opportunity presented while he was distracted, and immediately accessed a panel behind his helm. He'd hoped he would be fast enough to access the other's processor and take him offline. He should have known it was futile. When Sunstreaker got like this, he was damn near untouchable. Ratchet had been lucky enough to get as far as he had and the only thing that saved him from getting scrapped by the frantic warrior, was the dim recognition in his otherwise unseeing optics.

The twins had long accepted Ratchet as the one mech they trusted. Or, at least, Sideswipe had and Sunstreaker begrudgingly accepted his brother's acceptance of the medic. That was what he claimed when confronted about it, anyway. Despite his constant denial that he trusted the medic, it was generally understood by all that the twins favored Ratchet, and that Ratchet favored them.

It was hard for the medic not to care for the two slagheads when they wound up in his medbay as often as they did.

And so it was the trust that Sunstreaker claimed didn't exist that saved Ratchet from meeting a rather nasty end at his servos. And Ratchet knew he would have been torn to pieces before any of the others could have reacted had he not been so sure that Sunstreaker would not attack him.

Ratchet grimaced when he looked into Sunstreaker's optics, noting the growing lack of understanding he was seeing there. Sunstreaker was more than disturbed by something and Ratchet had started to fear the worst for his red twin. However, that fear would have to wait; Sunstreaker was still online, which meant that so was Sideswipe. Not many mechs knew that if one twin offlined, then the other would follow shortly after. It was safe to assume that whatever trouble the red twin had gotten himself into, he was still online. At least at the moment. So Ratchet had far more pressing matters to concern himself with. Right then, he needed to get Sunstreaker into stasis before he seriously harmed another Autobot and that meant the other mech had to stay rational for a long enough period to let Ratchet close. If he didn't then Ratchet would have to use force, and that was something he didn't think would end well for him. Only an insane mech would willingly antagonize Sunstreaker in his current state.

Ratchet put up his servos in a placating manner, his posture non-threatening.

"Easy there, Sunstreaker. It's all right. I know that you're upset, but you need to calm yourself before you hurt someone. I know that, despite all outward appearances, that that is something you _do not_ want to do."

Sunstreaker's optics regained some of their violet coloring and his frame slackened ever-so-slightly. "Ratchet..."

"I need to put you into stasis, for your own sake, as well as for the others."

For a moment the tension hung around them and no one moved. The word 'stasis' was not one that Sunstreaker liked to hear, even when his ability to reason wasn't quickly deteriorating. The front liner suddenly tensed and his eyes flared white again. He snarled and charged. He'd never liked being forced into stasis. Still, Ratchet had wanted to try talking with him before having to resort to using force.

Ratchet sidestepped before he could be tackled, and the crazed Lamborghini growled deep and threatening when he'd failed to hit his target. He turned, lightning fast, and managed to grab the medic by his chevron, pushing him down onto his knees. Ratchet leaned in towards the hand that currently hand him pinned, wincing under the pain. Sunstreaker towered over him and raised his fist to strike. Thankfully for Ratchet, Jazz took that precise moment to tackle the warrior to the ground.

Ratchet rubbed at his helm, thankful Sunstreaker hadn't taken him with him when he was knocked to the ground, and turned. "Don't just stand there, Bluestreak! Help Jazz hold him down!"

Bluestreak, who'd been watching all this happen from a safe distance, jumped when addressed so harshly, but did as he was told. He rushed over to Jazz and helped pin the enraged front liner down. Pretty soon, several other bots had joined the pile, latching onto flailing limbs as Sunstreaker desperately tried to free himself, a roar of indignant rage hanging in the air.

"Anytime you're ready, doc-bot. This ain't as fun as it looks." Jazz grunted as he was nearly tossed from Sunstreaker's back. The yellow twin bucked and tried to lash out with his arms but could barely move with all the weight pinning him. It was amazing he could move at all with the number of bots pressing in on him.

Ratchet approached slowly, his index finger uncapping as a long cord snaked out from within. He accessed the panel behind the yellow warrior's helm and jacked himself in, quickly bypassing all of his firewalls with medical code. He manually shut down his systems, forcing the mech struggling beneath him into stasis. One by one his systems went into standby mode and his struggling lessened with each passing klick, until the bots pinning him could finally move away. Sunstreaker groaned and weakly batted his arm back at Ratchet, but the motion was sluggish and caused no damage. His optics offlined and he grew completely limp.

His last conscious thought was of Sideswipe.

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><p>AN: Yeah, I know. Sunstreaker kinda took over this chapter. xD I couldn't help it. He was just so fun to write. Oh, and fear not. Skywarp will be present in the next chapter. ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: Again, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review, fave, and subscribe to this story. It let's me know that people out there are enjoying this story. :) This is my first time tackling the seekers - I hope I did them all justice.

Inspiration for this fic came from Koi Lungfish's Lost in Transmission.

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><p>Ocean and trees. That's all there was on either side of him. Tress behind him, and ocean in front. He couldn't even see any other bodies of land out in the distance. Just blue above and below.<p>

Skywarp frowned and tried to engage his warp drive. No luck. The primus-blasted thing was completely shot. And speaking of shot...

He looked down at his thrusters. No matter how hard he tried or how many times he did so, he just could not get them to engage. Not to mention none of his internal programming was responding to his commands. He'd tried accessing anything that could help him get off this ridiculous little island out in the middle of what had to be the Pit, but nothing had responded to his prompting. For Primus's sake, he couldn't even initiate his own transformation sequence! Even his comm. link was down and anytime he tried to access it, he'd get nothing but terrible, screeching, feedback. And to top it all off, he had a helm splitting processor ache that just would not go away.

The worst of it all was that he could not contact his trine. Their bond was a rudimentary one. It was the most basic bond amongst Cybertronians and it simply enabled seekers to read each other perfectly in and out of combat. It made them a perfect fighting unit, always knowing what the others were going to do before they did it. It also helped them pinpoint the locations of the rest of the trine if they ever got separated, though it could only function over short distances since trinemates were never very far from one another to begin with. If he were, say, halfway around the planet, the bond would be useless.

Being a teleporter, he was often sent on missions that required he be great distances from his trine, and he was never comfortable with it. He knew Thundercracker and Starscream felt the same, when they were sent off on extended solo missions, even though a certain red and blue slagger would never admit it.

Skywarp took a moment to survey himself. He was at least lucky in the regard that his physical injuries were fairly mild. Sort of.

He glanced at his wings, and grimaced when his optics raked over the scorch mark left by the Autobot's sniper. His wings were fully intact and if he could just get his thrusters to kick on, he'd be able to fly out of there without a problem, even if he couldn't transform. That was one of the blessings of having a root mode that was flight capable. The damage to his wing really wasn't all that worrisome – it was mostly just singed plating. His cockpit, on the other hand...

He growled. That slagging red twin had shattered the glass and just started tugging on handfuls of the sensitive wiring that usually lay concealed within. Nothing had been torn, thank Primus, but there was a dull ache within his circuits that could only be attributed to something being damaged, though it was probably minor. The worst part about the injury was that his internal wiring – his most _important_ internal wiring – was now exposed to the elements. That could cause some serious problems if he ended up stranded for too long. There was just no way he could repair the damaged glass of his cockpit. One, he didn't have the tools, and two, he didn't know how; Decepticons were programmed for war, what need did the majority of them have for repairing themselves? Especially when they had a mech back at base designated for such things.

Hook definitely was going to make his life miserable when he finally ended up repairing him. The medic was never very gentle with his servos. He hated having to patch the other 'Cons up and he always parted up a little bit of discomfort just to remind the others of his feelings on being their repair bot. He was good at his job, but that didn't change the fact that he hated being saddled with it. The pain he imparted was just enough so the 'Cons would think twice about ending up in his makeshift medbay anytime soon.

Skywarp had been unlucky enough to be taken to the medbay roughly a deca-cycle ago. So Hook would definitely not be pleased to see him again. Not to mention, Hook didn't like Skywarp all that much to begin with. The Constructicons were often on the receiving end of Skywarp's ill-conceived pranks and Hook was always the one, of course, who had to repair his gestalt-brethren. Hook was usually spared from Skywarp's antics, thanks to the purple jet being rightfully wary of him, but it all came back down to the fact that Hook hated being the medic. The fact that Skywarp forced him to patch up injuries that weren't even sustained in battle but during downtime, and were caused to his gestalt-mates of all mechs - well, that just put the teleporter automatically on his bad side.

Skywarp huffed and turned away from the water. Only a handful of Cybertronians were naturally buoyant, and he was not one of them. Therefore, he did not want to be anywhere near the ocean, no matter how shallow it was closer to shore.

From his spot on the beach, he could see the dense forest extend beyond him. He couldn't see above the trees, and at the edge of his vision was a wall of even more trees that climbed higher off the ground – no doubt due to a hill or mountain. He could only see a bit of it over the treetops and he was certain the thing was massive. Maybe if he managed to get high enough on it, he could open his comm link without any interference. It was certainly worth a shot.

Without a second thought, he wormed his way through the trees, which were thankfully far enough apart that he could maneuver between them. He stretched his wings back, so that they were perpendicular with his frame, to make movement that much easier. It wouldn't do if he got stuck and couldn't continue on. It was already incredibly irritating that he couldn't just fly to the damn mountain. Then again, if he could fly, he would just make his way to the nearest major land mass and find a way to contact the Decepticons.

He briefly wondered what Thundercracker and Starscream were up to, failing to catch a flash of the color red that was only briefly visible out of the corner of his optics.

/-/

"That idiot managed to get himself into another mess, he can get himself out!" Starscream was pacing about his quarters, Thundercracker watching him warily from his place leaning against the wall.

There was just no talking to Starscream when he got into one of his moods. He'd been ranting about their purple trinemate for the last breem and didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. The air commander tended to irritate the skidplates off of most other mechs, but Thundercracker had an infinite amount of patience, hence why he was currently listening to his irate speech. It didn't bother him, though, honestly. Not at the moment, anyway.

Thundercracker knew this was Starscream's way of worrying over Skywarp, something he would adamantly deny if confronted about it. The tri-colored jet liked to pretend he hated his trine and would cast blame on them if it would spare him Megatron's anger, but he couldn't lie over the trine bond. Both Skywarp and Thundercracker knew he cared about them, though his words, and sometimes even his actions, said differently.

Thundercracker heaved a burst of air from his intakes and it ended up being louder than he'd intended. Starscream turned to glare at him.

"Something you'd like to contribute, Thundercracker?"

Thundercracker took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Starscream, I know you're worried about, 'Warp-" He ignored the indignant "Am not!" from his trine leader. "But you need to calm down. 'Warp's gotten himself into worse situations. Pit, he gets himself into worse situations every time he antagonizes one of Soundwave's cassettes. He's probably used his warp drive too much and just can't teleport back just yet. And the reason we don't feel him in the bond is because he's just too far away."

"What about his comm. link? If he were having trouble, the idiot would have radioed in by now."

Thundercracker shrugged, though a slight nagging in his processor did say that that was rather odd. He didn't tell Starscream this, though. There was no sense in being the cause of another one of the air commander's tirades. Instead, he just said, "He's probably done something to damage it. He's managed that before. He'll probably be popping back in here any cycle."

Starscream gave him a look that said he thought otherwise.

Another burst of air from his intakes. "All right, what do you want to do then? It's your call, after all."

"That's right. It is _my call_. I am leader of this trine and your Air Commander, so you have to do what I say."

If he could have, Thundercracker would have rolled his optics. Unfortunately, that was a purely human gesture and he was unable. Starscream liked to remind his trine mates as often as he could of his position over them. It got irritating, but there was nothing they could do about it. They could ignore Starscream, but that never ended well for them.

It was hard for most mechs to handle Starscream's ego and most preferred to just ignore him when he went on his little rants. Not that Starscream ranted to anyone who wasn't Thundercracker or Skywarp, and the two of them couldn't just ignore him.

"So then, what do you want to do?"

Starscream appeared thoughtful for a moment. "For the time being, we will just have to wait."

Thundercracker heaved air from his intakes for what felt like the thousandth time that cycle. "I guess that's really all we can do at this point. Until Skywarp can find his way back or at least manage to contact us, we're really just flying blind."

"Indeed. Let's hope our idiotic trinemate hasn't gone and gotten himself scrapped. I'd hate to have to try and find a replacement."

Thundercracker stiffened at his trine leader's words before reminding himself that Starscream didn't actually mean it. If it came down to it, they would have to find a replacement, but that's not what really had Starscream worried. Thundercracker knew this was just the Air Commander's way of expressing his concern.

If Skywarp offlined, there would be some feedback within their shared bond. And since neither of them had felt anything yet, there was no reason to be too concerned. Still, Thundercracker didn't like the silence on the other end. Trines weren't meant to be apart for very long. And the longer Skywarp was missing, the more stress it would put on the two of them.

"And if he's well and truly lost somewhere with his systems damaged? What then?"

Starscream actually looked slightly concerned for a nano-klik, but the emotion disappeared just as quickly as it had presented itself. "We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it."

The blue seeker nodded and turned to exit Starscream's quarters, leaving the Air Commander on his own.

Once by himself, Starscream exhaled through his intakes and took a seat on his berth. His frustration must have been evident in the trine bond, for he felt Thundercracker send a comforting pulse over his end.

He sent one back before busying himself with plans Megatron had sent to him concerning their next energon raid. It would do him no good to worry – it would simply be a hindrance to his duties. Still, the feeling just would not go away, no matter how much he willed it to.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed, faved, and subscribed to this story. It means a lot.

Inspiration for this fic came from Koi Lungfish's Lost in Transmission.

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><p>Sideswipe remained as far back as he could. It would be pretty inconvenient if Skywarp happened to notice him.<p>

The red twin had been making his way towards what was undoubtedly the beach (he was on an island, any way he went undoubtedly led to a beach) when the color purple caught his eye. He managed to conceal himself behind a particularly large tree and he watched with caution as Skywarp passed him by. The jet was far too absorbed in his own thoughts to even take notice of Sideswipe's presence, which was perfectly fine by him.

The seeker seemed to have a destination in mind and Sideswipe was content to follow him, seeing as he obviously had nothing better to do. Maybe Skywarp knew where they were and how to get off this Primus-forsaken rock. Maybe the teleporter was lucky enough to be functioning properly, despite the crash.

Then again, if Skywarp was functioning properly, Sideswipe had no doubt he'd have just flown away, rather than pushing through the trees at ground level.

_The slagger's probably as fragged up as I am_, Sideswipe thought irritably.

He kept several yards behind the seeker, being careful to stay behind trees and step about the brush as lightly as his peds would allow. His injured knee didn't feel like cooperating with him, though, and he stumbled.

He quickly righted himself, but not before something snapped underfoot. He cursed inwardly and dove behind a tree that was nowhere near the sound he'd just made. With any luck, Skywarp would just attribute the noise to the sounds of the forest and continue on his way. But, come to think of it...

_I haven't seen, let alone _heard_ any wildlife since I onlined on this stupid rock. With a forest this dense, you'd think I'd at least hear birds chirping..._

From his hiding spot, Sideswipe watched as Skywarp stilled, shoulders hunching forward in his nervousness before he turned around, optics narrowed suspiciously. The jet walked over to the location the noise had come from and looked around. Sideswipe tried to make himself as small as possible, no easy accomplishment when you were 16 feet tall.

He heard the teleporter growl as he surveyed the area. Apparently, he found nothing suspicious, for he immediately returned to making his way through the forest, grumbling curses and annoyances as he went.

Sideswipe heaved a burst of air from his intakes, his legs shaking beneath him. That had been close. He really didn't want to engage the purple seeker in his current condition. There was a distinct possibility that if he tried taking on the jet he'd get himself scrapped. Then he'd never make it off the island...and that was if something else didn't offline him first.

After a couple kliks, Sideswipe dared to leave the safety of his tree. He glanced around, making sure the coast was clear, in case Skywarp had in actuality seen him and attempted to ambush him further on his way. He felt a tingling sensation on the back of his neck and crouched low to the ground. It was the same sensation he'd felt before he'd run into Skywarp: like someone was watching him.

He didn't for a second entertain the notion that it was Skywarp watching him. Nothing about Skywarp screamed subtle and Sideswipe knew that the seeker would never be one to stalk him, anyway. He'd come charging out of nowhere or simply wait to ambush him. No, the jet did not have the patience required to stalk someone. It just required way too much effort.

A shudder rolled through his systems and his lack of depth perception started to make him queasy again. He fought down the urge to purge his tanks and waited for the various sensations assaulting his systems to dissipate. It didn't take long for the feeling of someone watching him to go away and he was thankful it hadn't lasted long.

Once satisfied that his cover had not been blown, he resumed tailing the agitated seeker, trying to be much more careful this time around. He had to move quickly to catch up, but once he caught sight of Skywarp in the distance, he allowed himself to slow back down.

He briefly wondered where Skywarp was going, but decided anyplace was better than sitting around waiting to be rescued.

/-/

Skywarp narrowed his optics.

_Everything in this slagging forest looks the slagging SAME!_

He was lost, he was sure of it. Well, more lost than one could possibly be when stranded on an island Primus-knew-where.

He was already uneasy about being in the middle of a forest as it was. He was a seeker. He was built for the open skies, not the confinement of the ground. The air was stuffy down here, not like high up in the sky where he felt free and relaxed. He hadn't been grounded all that long but he he already found himself _longing_ to be back in the air. Being unable to fly was the most excruciating kind of pain a seeker could know.

Seekers experienced sky-withdrawal far more than any other breed of flyer. Shuttles and standard jets could go for longer periods of time without going crazy. It wasn't entirely known why, but many assumed it had to do with a seeker's coding.

Skywarp felt his frame shudder slightly and knew the withdrawal was beginning to set in. If he didn't get up in the air soon, there was no telling how bad his processor would glitch. He'd have to go through a serious defragmentation later. And that was if he was lucky enough to get off this island before he offlined.

It didn't help that he had the distinct feeling that someone was following him. His suspicions were all but confirmed earlier when he'd heard the sound of something snapping underneath someone's ped. He was almost certain it was the slagging red twin, Sideswipe. He'd made an effort to look for whatever had made the noise, but didn't dwell on it for too long. He wanted the Autobot to think he was in the clear.

He would lead the grounder on for a little while, let him slip into a false sense of security before he ambushed him and offlined him. The last thing he needed was for some slagging Autobot to be trailing him in the middle of some forest. He wasn't a tour guide; it wasn't his responsibility to lead the idiot to that mountain.

Not that he was even sure he was heading the right way, anymore. He couldn't see anything over the trees. They were frighteningly tall, considering how they toward over Cybertronians. Especially Skywarp. He was bigger than the grounder currently following him and he still felt ridiculously small. He could only imagine how the red twin felt.

He tried opening his navigational system and cursed softly when it failed to open. He wasn't sure why he had hoped it would work. It hadn't opened the first time he'd wanted it to.

He couldn't understand why none of his systems were cooperating with him. He wasn't all that badly damaged. There was absolutely no reason why all of his programs should fail to respond to his commands; there were no torn wires in his cockpit, which would explain away system errors. He paused in his movement and offlined his optics. He accessed his internal diagnostics and ordered the program to run. The program failed to respond at first and he almost punched through a tree in his frustration, but after some coaxing it finally booted up. A wave of relief washed over him. At least something chose to work for him. He ordered the program to run a complete diagnostic of all of his systems. Depending on the level of damage, it could take awhile.

He leaned back against the same tree he nearly punched a hole through and allowed the program to run its course. Thanks to his chronometer malfunctioning along with most everything else, he had no idea how long the whole process would take. He could have continued on his way towards the mountain – if he was still heading in the right direction – but the program was much more efficient if he wasn't moving. Plus, he wanted to keep an optic on the results as they pinged in his processor and he would only half be paying attention to where he was going if he did that.

Far sooner than it should have, the diagnostics program finished its run. Skywarp ordered the results to display on his HUD and cursed loudly. The program could find nothing wrong with any of his internal systems. It made no sense!

The sound of jets screaming overhead immediately caught his attention. He could barely see the sky through the trees, but in the space he _could_ see, two F-15's raced by, low and close to the treetops. Skywarp had to cycle his optics off and on, telling himself it had just been his imagination.

_Impossible. There's no way that was them..._

In the growing stillness since he thought he'd heard the planes, his audio receptors picked up movement off to his left and his agitation hit a whole new level, though he made no sign that he'd heard the noise. He was seriously sick of the stupid twin tailing him. He'd have to do something about that.

/-/

Sideswipe grew impatient as he watched the seeker rest against the tree. How could Skywarp possibly want to rest when he was stranded. Surely getting off the island was more important right now.

He jumped when the jet cursed and backed away a few steps putting a little more distance between them, just in case. He expected that the seeker had realized he was being followed and would come charging his way any nano-klik. Instead, Sideswipe watched him, confused as Skywarp turned his optics to the sky, like he expected to see something. The jet was acting odd and it was making the red twin nervous.

He took another step back and cursed when a branch on the forest floor snapped beneath his ped. If he had breath to hold, he would have done so. Thankfully, Skywarp seemed oblivious and moved off once more, his pace much quicker this time, no doubt to make up for lost time.

The front liner hurried off after him, being more careful with his steps. He skidded to a halt when he reached a small clearing. He looked around, a frown forming on his faceplate.

_Where'd that slagger g-_

"Don't move, Autobot."

_Oh. Duh._

Sideswipe turned and found himself staring down one of Skywarp's arm cannons.

_Slag._

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><p><em>AN: Things are going to really pick up starting next chapter. Now that Skywarp and Sideswipe are stuck working together, the real fun starts.  
><em>


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers. You guys are amazing. Also, you get an extra chapter this week because I was hit with an insane bout of motivation and I wrote a LOT over the last couple days.

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><p><em>Slag. Slagslagslagslagslag.<em>

Sideswipe's one good optic widened and Skywarp's faceplate morphed into a scowl in response.

"Um, hi?"

The arm cannon inched closer to his face and he involuntarily took a step back. Skywarp took an equal step forward to close the distance once more.

"Stop following me, Autobot. It's starting to irritate me."

Sideswipe took a step to the side. The cannon followed him.

"Look, I'm lost, you're lost. Do we really have time for this?" What was he thinking? They were stuck in the middle of nowhere. Of course they had nothing but time. Skywarp clearly felt the same.

"We _always_ have time for this," he snarled.

"So you say. But I really want to get off this Primus-forsaken rock and get back to my faction and I'm sure you want to do the same. I'm willing to bet that you're currently as scrapped as I am and you're feeling just as helpless, too. So, why not call a temporary truce – I know, I know, an Autobot and a Decepticon working together? My processor must be fried. I'm actually inclined to agree on that one."

Skywarp's resolve seemed to falter momentarily, his faceplate losing it's irritated scowl for a nano-klik. His arm cannon lowered almost imperceptibly, but Sideswipe noticed. However, the moment passed and the jet's scowl returned, deepening.

Sideswipe tensed, his frame dipping ever so slightly into a crouch. He hoped the seeker didn't catch it. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky. The cannon tapped against the top of his helm.

"Don't. Move."

The briefest moment of hesitation on the red twin's part before he threw himself to one side. He heard Skywarp growl but the Decepticon didn't try firing on him. Odd. Perhaps he was functioning slower than normal. He pulled his own gun out of subspace as his body rolled, trailing it onto the jet in one fluid motion as he came to a stop, crouched down on one knee, good optic narrowed slightly in concentration. He inwardly winced at the movement he'd forced on his newly repaired knee joint, ignoring the dull throbbing that affected the surrounding area. Hopefully he hadn't gone and caused any further damage to himself. The wound may not have been all that bad, but that didn't mean he shouldn't be taking things a little easier than he normally did. He'd have to worry about it at a later time though, right now there were far more important things to deal with.

He actually took a klik to feel smug with himself for his previous move, letting the feeling show in his expression.

"Ha! Now what're you gunna do? I bet you I'm faster with a gun than you are." Sideswipe couldn't help but grin cheekily.

Skywarp's optics twitched and he turned to face the red twin once more, arm cannon returning to aim at him, though now there was at least some distance between the two of them.

"I'm willing to take that bet."

A small whine from the arm cannon and Sideswipe knew what was coming. He squeezed the trigger of his weapon in response, knowing the power-up time was less on his gun and he fired.

Or, at least, he should have fired. But nothing happened. He looked down at his weapon, optic wide in his disbelief.

_Seriously, Primus? Do you hate me today?_

And then he remembered Skywarp's cannon. He looked up, fear coloring his optic. The jet sneered haughtily down at him in a look that would have made Starscream proud.

"Sorry Autobot, guess luck's not on your side today."

And he fired.

"What the-?" Skywarp frowned as he glanced over his arm cannon. "Fire, you malfunctioning piece of slag!"

Sideswipe couldn't stop the grin from spreading on his faceplate, though inwardly he was cursing his own stupidity.

_Duh, Sideswipe. If none of your internal systems feel like cooperating, why would you for a nano-klik think that your weaponry would be any better off?_

"Heh, looks like you really are just as scrapped as I am."

Skywarp snarled at him. "Tell that to your ugly faceplate."

"Oooh, that stung. You're lucky Sunstreaker's not here. Being twins and all, he would have totally taken some serious offense to that comment. You know how pretty he thinks he is and how much he _hates_ when 'Cons insult him." Of course, Sunstreaker called his faceplate ugly all the time. He probably wouldn't even care that Skywarp had said that about his twin. Still, the mention of his brother had the desired effect.

Skywarp bristled at the mention of the yellow warrior. It was no secret that the command trine feared him. Pit, on some level they feared both the twins, but Sunstreaker was on his own level in that regard. When he fought, it was with cool detachment and frightening efficiency. While the Decepticons enjoyed the mayhem they caused – and Sideswipe couldn't lie, breaking things was kinda fun – Sunstreaker viewed battle as a testing ground. He was out to prove that he didn't need anyone to look after him, that he could take anything the 'Cons threw at him and give it back ten-fold. And he always did. There was the occasional time that the yellow front liner would end up worse off than those on the other side, but more often that not he gave worse than he got and the command trine remembered that. It would be stupid for them not to, considering how often the twins and the seekers went head-to-head.

Sideswipe couldn't deny the command trine was effective in battle as a complete unit. They worked as well together as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker did. Trines were able to function in battle as good as split-spark twins due to the nature of their bond and it made them something to fear in battle. When one of the twins went up against all three of them, they would usually get themselves slagged. Even fighting together the twins had trouble against all three of the seekers and battles could go either way, but one-on-one, it was no contest. The twins would always win.

Skywarp glared at him, having lost the slight fear that glinted in his optics at the mention of Sunstreaker's name. "Yeah, well your Pit-spawned brother isn't here. You're all by yourself with no one to save you."

The jet tensed into a crouch, arm cannon forgotten. Apparently, he was going to try and offline Sideswipe the old-fashioned way.

The red twin exhaled exasperatedly through his intakes. "Really, Skywarp? One, I don't need anyone to 'save me'. I'm perfectly capable of scrapping your sorry aft all on my own, and you know it. And two - c'mon, you know I can take you on the ground, no problem. You're not built for confrontations that don't take place in the sky."

"Doesn't hurt to try." He lunged, tackling the red warrior off his feet.

The two of them struggled and rolled around the small clearing, occasionally bumping into the surrounding trees. Sideswipe was smaller than the jet and was having some trouble fending him off, but that all changed once his servo managed to find and wrap around the seeker's singed wing. With a cry, the jet bolted off of him, scooting his aft backwards through the dirt, trying feebly to dislodge the other from his wing.

"Stopstop_stop_," he hissed.

Sideswipe ignored him, optic narrowing as he pulled down a little, causing further discomfort to the jet. This was a power play. He had to show the seeker that he was someone to be taken seriously, even in their current conditions. It wouldn't help his case if he relented too early. And damage to wings wasn't just incredibly painful either, it was also detrimental to a seeker's flight. The metal had to be smooth and free of nearly all imperfections for them to fly without issue. If there were dents or snags in the metal It could cause drag on the appendages, making flying more difficult.

Skywarp was too preoccupied with trying to free his wing as gently as possible to try fighting the red front liner off. Seeker wings were unbelievably sensitive to damage. The slightest dent could cause them a great deal of discomfort and Sideswipe had no doubt that Skywarp was currently experiencing just that. He gave another tug on the appendage.

"Promise to behave?" Sideswipe spoke as if to a sparkling.

Skwarp's optics narrowed, though the effect was lost when his wing received another painful tug, and he mumbled something.

"What was that?" A pinch that managed to leave a dent.

"I said '_yes_', you fragger. Now let go!"

And Sideswipe did. Indignant, the jet climbed to his peds, fingers gently rubbing against his damaged wing. He looked over the damage and growled. Sideswipe didn't bother hiding his amused smirk. Served the stubborn aft right.

"So, temporary truce?" Sideswipe extended a servo to the purple seeker.

Skywarp batted it away and growled.

"Fine, but once we're off this stupid rock, then everything goes back to the way it was."

"Well duh." Sideswipe grinned like an idiot.

Skywarp's optics narrowed and the grin melted right off the red twin's faceplate. "I swear to Primus, I'm going to slag you good for what you did to my wing when this is all over."

"Heh, and I'd love to see you try."

An awkward silence settled in and Sideswipe resisted the urge to shuffle his feet. He didn't want to appear unsure or uneasy, though he certainly felt that way.

"So, uh, where were you headed anyway?"

"There's some sort of mountain or hill somewhere on the other edge of the forest." Skywarp pointed in the way he was heading, though he didn't look entirely certain. "I'm hoping that if I can get high enough up on it, then maybe I can radio my trine. It's a slim chance, but there's nothing else to be done at the moment."

Sideswipe shrugged. "Really? That's your plan?"

"Shut it, Autobot. Unless you want me to leave you here?"

Sideswipe shook his head. "No no, sounds good to me. Lead the way."

The jet grumbled something but turned to head in the direction he had originally been going.

Sideswipe made to follow, but something on the corner of his vision stopped him. Something yellow. Something _familiar_.

"Sunny?" He turned and nearly jumped out of his frame. There, standing a few yards away, was his twin.

_That's impossible._

And yet there he was, customary scowl plastered on his faceplate, arms crossed tightly over his chassis. He exuded irritation.

Sideswipe's spark clenched in his chest. He tried sending another pulse through their bond, but it went unanswered. Something wasn't right.

He powered down his one good optic. An afterimage of his twin lingered, but faded after a moment and Sideswipe found himself missing it. When he rebooted his optic, he was almost disappointed that his twin no longer stood across from him.

_That was...really weird._

He shook his head, chalking the vision up to stress and moved to follow the seeker. He doubted Skywarp would wait for him and would gladly ditch him first chance he got. He would have to stick close to the Decepticon. It wouldn't do him any good to get even more lost than he already was.

/~/

Back at the Ark, Sunstreaker was in slightly better condition than his brother. Ratchet had him currently forced into stasis, lying on a medical berth, a number of machines hooked up to his systems while the medic monitored him. He moved between several of the screens, making notes on a data pad. He would pause in his work every so often when the yellow twin would twitch.

Sunstreaker's processor was designed to fend off anything it felt was detrimental. Right now, Sunstreaker wanted more than anything to be online, even if the feeling was only dancing through his subconscious. His systems translated his forced stasis into an outside attack and were struggling to fight off the code that Ratchet had inserted into his processor.

The medic had to stay on top of the twin to make sure he didn't come out of stasis. Every so often he'd rework the code, making it just a little more difficult for Sunstreaker's systems to fight it off. He didn't enjoy doing this to the front liner. Sunstreaker had an ego the size of Cybertron and could be one massive pain in the aft, but deep down he was a good bot and he'd saved every member of the Ark's crew on more than one occasion. He'd also slagged several of them on more than one occasion. Most bots seemed to remember those moments better than the ones where Sunstreaker was saving their hides instead.

Ratchet turned as the medbay door slid open and Optimus Prime walked in.

"How is he doing?"

Ratchet sighed through his intakes. "His systems are stressed, but the machines aren't telling me why. Honestly, though, they don't really need to. I've had both twins in here more times than I care to recall and I can tell the stress is from the strain on his bond with his brother. But he's not shutting down, meaning Sideswipe is still online somewhere."

"You are sure?"

"Prime, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are split-spark twins. I know not many mechs know exactly what that means, but I do. A bot cannot function if half of his spark is destroyed and that's what each of the twins is, half a spark. If one offlines, the other has to follow, there's no way around it. There's too much damage caused by the backlash of losing their other half and the remaining half a spark will slowly fade until it's gone. Twins will either offline together when their sparks grow old and weak and they've reached the end of their life-cycle, which is how it _should_ be, under normal circumstances."

"Normal circumstances?"

"Meaning when we're not at war and bots can expect to live full lives without having to worry about being offlined prematurely."

Optimus nodded. "And the other possibility is one twin will be offlined before the other, leaving an imbalance with the surviving twin?"

"Exactly. Split-sparks are incredibly rare so there have been very few studies on twins, but always, _always_, when one offlines before the other, the second twin will always follow soon after. It's not a matter of _if_. It's a matter of _when_."

"So, because Sunstreaker is still with us and none of his systems are shutting down, then it is safe to say that Sideswipe is out there somewhere, possibly fighting to stay online."

"Yes, and there's apparently some kind of strain on their bond – from what I don't know – but it's more than likely what caused Sunstreaker's earlier outburst."

At that moment the medbay door slid open again, allowing Prowl access to the room.

"Prowl, did you run the scenarios?" Optimus asked.

"They're still running, but logically speaking, Skywarp is far too unpredictable for these scenarios to really narrow down where Sideswipe might be. Without questioning him ourselves, there's no way to know exactly where our missing warrior was left. The only course of action would be to ask Sunstreaker. His bond with his twin enables him to pinpoint exactly where he is, correct? We should bring him back online and ask him."

Ratchet picked up a wrench and twirled it between his fingers, eager to give his servo something to do to detract from his unease. "It should, yes. But I hesitate to bring him out of stasis. There's no telling if he'll react badly once he's awake and I don't want to risk him causing any major damage to himself or to others."

Optimus rested a servo on his shoulder. "Ratchet, I understand your concern, but this may be the only way we have at locating his brother."

Ratchet visibly sagged. "All right, but you're going to have to be careful with how you speak with him. Don't do anything to get him riled up."

"I will do my best, my friend."

Ratchet turned to one of the machines and pressed a few buttons. It hummed softly as Sunstreaker was allowed to come out of stasis.

The yellow twin's optics onlined slowly and he groaned. He sat up and looked around the room.

"Why am I in the medbay?"

Ratchet bristled. That was not the first question he wanted to hear from the warrior's mouth. Sunstreaker had a serious aversion to being forced into stasis and though the medic was certain he knew that that was what had happened, he didn't want to have to be the one to confirm it. It would probably only serve to anger the front liner.

Thankfully, Optimus brushed the question aside. "Sunstreaker, do you recall our battle with the Decepticons this morning?"

Sunstreaker nodded, then his whole frame tensed, a growl escaping his vocalizer. "Sideswipe!"

Ratchet put up his hands in a calming manner, though he was ready to throw the switch and force Sunstreaker back into stasis at any given moment. "Calm down, Sunstreaker. We're working on it. Optimus just needs to ask you a few questions. Okay?"

"Stop tiptoeing around me like a frightened sparkling, docbot. I'm fine."

Ratchet didn't lose the tension in his frame. Sunstreaker was unpredictable and he could snap if the slightest thing set him off. Just because he was "fine" at that moment didn't mean he'd remain that way for very long.

Optimus took a step forward. "Sunstreaker, we need to know if you can currently feel Sideswipe through your bond."

The yellow twin was silent for a few kliks before his faceplate morphed into a grimace. "No, there's something blocking the bond." He turned to Ratchet, who involuntarily winced at the glare he was given. "Why can't I feel him?"

"I'm not sure yet. But trust me when I say that Sideswipe is still most definitely online and there's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about?" Sunstreaker roared as he climbed to his peds.

_Oh Primus, here we go,_ Ratchet thought as he took a step away from the enraged warrior.

"Of course there's something to worry about! Why can't I feel him? He should be present in the bond, but he's not! Where is he? What's happened to him?" He took a threatening step forward, but stopped in his tracks when Optimus stepped between the two of them.

Prowl moved closer, as well. "Sunstreaker, please remain calm. Can you recall the last place you could feel your twin before your bond with him went dark?"

The front liner appeared thoughtful as he searched his databanks for the answer they were looking for. "Last time I logged him, he was somewhere over the Arctic Circle. But he wasn't there for very long – just a few kliks. After that, nothing."

Prowl looked to Optimus. "It is possible Sideswipe experienced a similar problem to Skyfire. He may have gotten caught in a storm and been stuck in the ice."

Optimus nodded to him. "Sunstreaker, do you have the coordinates for Sideswipe's last known location?"

He did. He relayed them to Prowl who made a note of them.

"Good. This gives us a much better idea of where to focus our search."

Sunstreaker rounded on them, his voice dripping with anger. Color started bleeding from his optics as they started going white. "Idea? You mean you have absolutely no clue where Sideswipe is? None at all?"

Ratchet reacted as soon as Sunstreaker had turned on his superiors. Thankfully, the front liner hadn't bothered to separate the wires currently connecting him to the medical equipment and all the medic had to do was press a few buttons before the yellow twin started to slip back into stasis. His body started to slump and Optimus helped Ratchet place him back on the berth.

"Thank you for your assistance Ratchet. We will do our best to locate his brother."

Ratchet nodded and watched as Optimus and Prowl left the medbay. Somehow, he couldn't fight the feeling that they would be looking in the all the wrong places.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: As always, thank you sososooooo much to everyone who reviewed, faved, and subscribed to this story. You guys are the best.

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><p>Will you fragging keep up?" Skywarp snapped. "I can't believe a grounder is having trouble keeping up with me on <em>the ground<em>."

He looked back over his shoulder and sneered at the red twin.

"Oh don't get your wings in a twist. I'm injured, all right?" Sideswipe glared right back, before adding under his breath, "And it's all thanks to you."

Skywarp came to an abrupt halt then. He rounded on the front liner, his optics hard and narrowed. "Oh do forgive me Autobot. I forgot, this is a war where everyone plays nice and shoots rainbows and sunshine at each other. Primus forbid anyone causes any slagging damage. And as I recall, you're the one who thought it would be fun to jump up on my back while I was flying through the air at two times the speed of sound!"

The idiot twin grinned. "Please, you weren't going that fast."

Skywarp's optics twitched. No one but his trine was allowed to insult him when it came to how fast he flew. He was the slowest of the three of them, that was true, but he was still very fast and his ability to teleport more than made up for his slower flying.

He growled and stepped closer to Sideswipe, his posture threatening. "Say that again, Autobot."

Sideswipe puffed up his chassis and leaned up on his peds to make himself appear taller than he was. He placed his fists on his hips. "You were flying much, _much_ slower. In fact, I'd say you're easily the slowest flyer in your faction."

"I'm gunna turn you into scrap!" Skywarp lunged and tackled the red twin to the ground. Unfortunately, this time they were not in a somewhat open clearing and before they could grapple and roll too far, they collided with a number of trees, putting several dents in their armor. The new damage, though superficial, was enough to get them to stop.

Sideswipe managed to dislodge the purple jet and he stood up on shaky peds. His damaged knee was apparently hurting him. Good.

"Geez, you sure are easy to goad. Was that really necessary?"

"Of course it was necessary! It's bad enough that I have to work with you at all, but then you have the nerve to insult me on top of it?" Skywarp growled.

Sideswipe shrugged. "Not like there's really much else to keep my processor occupied out here."

"So you entertain yourself at my expense? What, were you just sparked?"

The red twin's good optic flickered briefly. "I have to do something to keep myself from thinking. There's just way too many 'what if' scenarios that I can run through my processor and most of them end pretty badly. Not to mention..."

His words trailed off and Skywarp could feel his irritation grow.

"Out with it already or I'm just going to leave you here to rust!"

That infuriating grin was back. "As if you could." But then the smile faded almost instantly. "I can't feel Sunstreaker. There's absolutely no reason the bond should be blocked."

A snort from the twin. "Wow, I must be really fragged up if I'm telling a Decepticon my problems."

Skywarp glared at him before his faceplate stretched into a grin of his own. "Heh, maybe the yellow slagger went and got himself offlined. Would do us all a bunch of good."

There was absolutely no warning before the fist collided with his face and he was sent sprawling backwards onto his aft. He was about to retaliate before he forcibly stopped himself. The look of pain in the red twin's optic mirrored his own at not being able to reach his trine. He realized he understood all too well what the Autobot was feeling, even if a trine bond couldn't compare to the intensity of a bond shared by split-spark twins.

"He's not dead! So you shut up and keep your stupid thoughts to yourself!"

For a moment, he was worried the front liner might snap and attack him again. He'd seen the twins when their other half was knocked into stasis and their bond became muted. They were absolutely terrifying then.

From what he'd heard over the vorns, a split-spark bond, when active, was like a constant reassuring pressure on each twin, but when muted, the emptiness felt was so intense it could literally drive a mech temporarily insane. He thought it was just a bunch of slag until he'd encountered the twins in combat. The idiot red one would pull stupid stunts in battle – slag, he still did - almost on a daily basis and get himself scrapped up pretty good. And every time, the insane yellow one, who was vicious even on a normal day, would completely lose it. The Decepticons as a whole learned very quickly to avoid him at all costs when something happened to his other half. There was even the rare occasion when they're situations were reversed and it was the scary one that got himself slagged. The red twin may be nowhere near as volatile as his brother, but when their bond was muted, all rules were tossed out a window and Skywarp, himself, had learned quite quickly how easily Sideswipe could rend limbs from a bot.

Due to the nature of the twin bond, the Decepticons had an unspoken rule that if anyone went after the twins, they went after them together. While they were pretty frightening in battle, especially when fighting in unison, nothing could compare to the amount of damage they could cause on their own when they were totally berserk. It was actually pretty impressive. In fact, several of them often joked about how the twins would have made excellent Decepticons.

Skywarp grumbled as he climbed back to his peds, warily keeping his posture submissive. He may have been in better condition than the idiot Autobot, but he knew how very little that meant right at that moment. He had to defuse the situation before things got out of control. He knew just how to do that, though he really didn't like the thought of having to _share_ with the Autobot.

_The things I do to stay alive. _He sighed through his intakes.

"I can't feel my trine, either." He offered.

With a sense of relief, he watched the red twin visibly deflate as he took in this information.

"Really?" He almost sounded hopeful, like maybe the fact that Skywarp couldn't feel his trine mates meant that they were just malfunctioning so badly that neither of them could reach out to those who mattered.

The seeker crossed his arms over his chassis. He couldn't believe he was trying to console his enemy. Still, better that than ending up as little more than a pile of junk.

"That may not mean anything, though. Trine bonds function differently. The fact that I can't feel my trinemates could simply mean that they're just too far away at the moment. Though, I know they're still online. There hasn't been any backlash through the bond."

Sideswipe nodded. "Yeah, I haven't felt anything either. But there's no reason the bond should be so completely silent. Even if Sunstreaker were in stasis, the bond would merely be muted, not utterly empty."

"Look, I won't pretend to understand anything about your stupid twin bond. All I know is that right now, I want to get off this slagging island and we've wasted precious time standing here talking about our feelings." The lines of his mouth dipped into a sneer. He'd had enough of listening to his unwanted companion.

Skywarp was beyond irritated. He didn't want to be working with the Autobot he was currently stuck with. He missed his trine and the lack of their presence was starting to weigh down on him. But worst of all, he wanted to fly. It was this horrible _need_ embedded deep in his processor. The pain in his sensors due to lack of stimulation from flight was causing his thoughts to start to jumble into an incoherent mess. He had absolutely no doubt that if he didn't get airborne soon, he was going to quickly become more than useless. He's probably end up becoming nothing more than a burden and if that happened, he was certain the red idiot would leave him behind to rust. The twins did not usually present with the noble qualities of their fellow Autobots and if presented with the chance, Sideswipe would undoubtedly leave him behind.

It meant nothing that Skywarp was the one leading them through the accursed forest. It wasn't like he really had any idea where they were going, anyway. And he was sure the red twin would inevitably come to that conclusion himself. Primus, if he could, he would scrap the Autobot right there and then just to rid himself of this unwanted burden. But even if he succeeded in doing just that, there would be no way he would escape without sustaining considerable damage and then where would that get him?

Growling, he turned and continued on. He paused when Sideswipe didn't immediately follow.

"Are you coming or not?"

He got no reply. He looked back at the twin, noting the look of confusion etched onto his faceplate.

"What's the matter with you now? You know what, no. I don't care. Stop standing there like a lost sparkling and let's go. I swear to Primus I _will_ leave you behind if you insist on slowing me-"

"I saw Sunstreaker."

Skywarp looked taken aback. "What?"

The red twins face lit up. "I saw him! He's here!"

The purple jet bristled. Was the yellow nightmare really there? Was there even the slightest possibility?

_No, if he was here, there's no doubt in my processor I'd be slagged by now._

Groaning he offlined his optics and counted to ten before onlining them. The red front liner was just messing with him again. He didn't have time for this slag.

"Your insane twin is not here. Stop trying to unnerve me and _let's go_!" The last bit came out as a hiss and it seemed to jolt the red twin.

"No, you're right. Sunny's not here. Dunno why I thought I'd seen him. Must be more damaged than I initially thought." He pushed past the seeker, shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts.

But Skywarp didn't follow. He was frozen in place, a feeling of dread overcoming him as he realized the Autobot hadn't been trying to mess with his thoughts.

He recalled seeing the jets flying overhead, unmistakably painted in the colors of his trinemates. They weren't real...right? There was no reason he should be seeing his trinemates. Something wasn't right...

"Okay, now who's the one holding us up?"

Skywarp snapped free of his thoughts and whirled around, growling deep in his chassis. "Shut up and move."

Sideswipe chuckled behind him and they continued on in silence.

/-/

Sideswipe was growing more fidgety with each passing klik. Something was definitely wrong.

He kept seeing Sunstreaker out of the corner of his good optic, but every time he turned to get a better look, his twin wasn't there. It was starting to unnerve him. Was he going crazy?

He knew he was slowing them down and Skywarp kept casting irritated glances back at him. It was only a matter of time before the seeker got so fed up with him that he would try to offline him or worse, ditch him.

Leaving him to rust, alone, with the silence on the other end of his bond, would be far worse a fate than death, of that he was convinced. The emptiness he felt within his spark was beginning to become unbearable.

He stopped moving when he once more caught sight of Sunstreaker on the edge of his vision.

Ahead of him, he was only vaguely aware of Skywarp shouting, annoyed, "Stop wasting time!"

He turned to look to the side, expecting to see nothing. Instead, there was Sunstreaker, smiling at him, posture relaxed.

_Wait...what?_

Sunstreaker almost never smiled. So why was he smiling now?

No, that wasn't right. Sideswipe offlined his optic and shook his head from side to side. When his vision cycled back on, he nearly took a step back.

Sunstreaker was still there.

Numbly, he took a step towards him brother, raising a servo to reach for him.

This was real. Sunstreaker was there. Suddenly, despite the emptiness in his spark, he didn't feel so alone.

_Sunny!_

A servo roughly grabbed his wrist and yanked him sideways. With a growl, he looked up into Skywarp's faceplate, seeing his own annoyance reflected right back at him.

"What the slag are you doing? Let go!"

"What am _I_ doing? I think I should be asking you that question. I'm seriously growing tired of you wasting time. I'm about three nano-kliks away from just leaving your aft behind!"

Sideswipe wrenched his arm free. "Yeah? Well go ahead! I don't need you now that Su-"

The name died on his lips. When he turned back to his brother, he was gone.

Sideswipe involuntarily took a step back, immediately knowing that Sunstreaker had never actually been there in the first place.

"What is the matter with you?" Skywarp hissed as Sideswipe dejectedly turned and continued walking in the direction the jet had been leading them. He offered the seeker no answer.

He could feel the heat of Skywarp's glare on his back, before the jet pushed past him, with a slight shove against his shoulder to move him aside.

Something in Sideswipe's spark seized and he nearly stumbled. He kept his footing, however, and followed behind Skywarp, barely aware that he was moving.

_Sunny, why do I keep seeing you? This isn't right. None of this makes any sense._

Was he wrong, before? Would he not feel some sort of terrible backlash through the bond if Sunstreaker offlined? Or, if there was a backlash, could it be possible that he had been in stasis when it had rushed through his systems? It was possible that under such circumstances, Sunstreaker could have offlined and he wouldn't even know.

Except that he kept seeing his twin. Was his subconscious trying to inform him of something crucial? Like the fact that his twin was really gone and there was nothing he could do to fix it?

Desperation flooded him.

_No. NononononoNO. Sunstreaker is online. He has to be. Otherwise I'd be in all kinds of agony from the bond's absence. But I'm not in any physical pain, meaning that I've simply got to be overreacting. I'm damaged and my systems are malfunctioning. That could easily explain the problems I've been having. I refuse to believe that Sunny is offline._

Jaw clenched, he forced himself to accept this as fact. Sunstreaker wasn't dead. He was just so fragged up that he couldn't make heads from tails.

He relaxed and everything around him came back into focus. Just in time, too, as he narrowly avoided walking right into a tree.

Of course, that would have been preferable to running into Skywarp. Which he succeeded in doing.

However, the jet was completely oblivious to the fact. His optics were trained skyward, wide and alert like he'd seen something.

"Thundercracker!" He suddenly cried and went barreling through the forest, barely taking the time to move around the trees. He was clearly upset about something.

It was all Sideswipe could do to keep up with the frantic seeker. He didn't know flyers could move so fast on the ground and he'd have been quick to dismiss it if he wasn't witnessing it with his own optic.

He stumbled into a clearing right on Skywarp's heels. This one was larger than the last one they'd been in. Sunlight actually flooded the area as there were no trees to immediately block it. He allowed his vision to filter the extra light before he cast his gaze on the now panicking flyer.

Skywarp was hunched over a rock, babbling incoherently. Sideswipe had to strain to pick up what was being said.

"TC! TC, get up!" The jet placed his servos on the rock, and pushed it back and forth gently, almost as if he was trying to shake it awake.

Sideswipe had to stifle a laugh. Something must have snapped in the jet's processor for him to be behaving in such a way. True, only a short time ago, Sideswipe had thought he was losing his mind, himself, but he never flew so far off the handle that he started talking to a tree or something.

"Thundercracker, you're going to be okay. Don't you dare offline on me. You can't leave me all alone with only Starscream for companionship! He whines too much! TC!"

Skywarp was becoming more frantic by the klik, and Sideswipe was briefly concerned. But the mention of Starscream whining to much proved to be his breaking point and he let out a loud laugh, bending over at the waist, trying to control himself. He'd have his fun for a moment, before he talked Skywarp out of his delusions.

"You..." The amount of venom in the seeker's vocalizer, threw him and he abruptly stopped laughing. Skywarp shakily climbed to his peds, his optics darker than Sideswipe had ever seen them.

"You did this...it's your fault. I'm gunna kill you, you fragger!"

Skywarp lunged at him and Sideswipe only had a moment to think the seeker had actually gone completely mad before a fist collided with his faceplate. It wasn't funny anymore.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: I love my reviewers and subscribers. Thank you so much for following this story. You all are the reason I find the motivation to update every week. :)

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><p><em>Holy slag.<em>

Skywarp had completely lost it.

The purple jet slammed Sideswipe back against a tree, jarring his internal wiring in a very unpleasant manner. The red twin groaned and felt his good optic flicker. That alone prompted him into action. He couldn't risk being blinded. He'd be scrapped for sure – there would be absolutely no way he could defend himself against the delusional seeker.

"Calm down!" Sideswipe managed to grind out as he was slammed back against the tree a second time. He winced, feeling like his entire body was going to fall to pieces. A loud _crack _sounded behind him, and he felt the support against his back disappear, shortly before a resounding _boom_ echoed around them. He didn't really have time to dwell on it, though.

Skywarp growled and spun, tossing him like a human's rag doll over his shoulder. Sideswipe landed with a groan as he skidded about a hundred feet through the clearing.

_Ooooow._

He couldn't lie. He normally found battles with the seekers exciting, fun even, because they always proved to be a challenge. And if there was anything Sideswipe liked, it was a good challenge. Maybe not to the extent that Sunstreaker liked to challenge himself, but still pretty close. But this was different. This definitely wasn't fun. The jet appeared to have lost all reasoning. There were no tactics involved in this fight, something the command trine prided themselves in. Sideswipe couldn't help but think of the gladiator matches of old when he watched Skywarp advance upon him with nothing but his destruction racing through the other's processor.

The purple jet advanced and Sideswipe forced himself to his peds, feeling the his knee might give out at any moment. What hadn't been too bad an injury was steadily getting worse with the constant jostling he was forced through. He barely had any time to react when, for a second time, a fist collided with his faceplate. He managed to keep his footing, but slid back about twenty feet. He rubbed gingerly at the throbbing area on his cheek for a moment, before deciding he needed to go on the offensive. If he didn't fight back, he was done for.

A quick glance around them and he spotted a downed tree, no doubt the source of the noise he'd heard shortly before he'd been thrown. It was no doubt the tree Skywarp had slammed him against. Lunging forward, he tucked his knees up to his chassis and rolled on the ground, feeling the ground shudder beneath him as Skywarp charged at the space he'd just been standing.

He stopped rolling and landed on his peds, hunching over in a single fluid motion to wrap his arms around the tree's base. Grunting, he lifted the tree and almost toppled over. The thing was a lot heavier than he thought it would be. It wouldn't be an effective weapon. Still, it was all he had.

He turned just in time to see Skywarp round on him, charging him down, though this time he wouldn't be able to dodge. He braced himself on his undamaged knee and swung the tree with as much force as he could muster. The result was a sickening crack as it collided with the purple jet, unbalancing him and knocking him to the ground.

Sideswipe didn't have a chance to enjoy this slight victory, for Skywarp, who was quickly becoming increasingly more unhinged, was back on his peds in a flash. Sideswipe only just registered being tackled to the ground.

He struggled to dislodge the seeker from on top of him,bringing up his servos to shield his face as blows rained down on him. He needed to regain some distance, and he needed to do so fast. When Skywarp pulled back before delivering another blow, Sideswipe found his opening. He tucked his knees up to his chassis and planted his peds firmly against the seeker's abdomen. He poured all of his strength into his legs and _pushed_. Skywarp had already been off-balance when he'd pulled back to strike him again, and the sheer amount of force Sideswipe had channeled into his limbs sent the seeker flying back and away from him.

Snarling nastily, Skywarp shrugged off his damage and climbed to his peds, ready to charge the red twin again. Sideswipe knew that his only chance was reasoning with the deranged seeker.

He tried placing his hands up in a placating gesture, taking a step back as he did so. He couldn't believe he was backing down from a fight like this, but deep down he knew that, in his current condition, if he tried taking Skywarp head on, he'd only succeed in getting himself scrapped. He couldn't allow that – he had to get back to the Autobots, to Sunstreaker.

He briefly wondered if Sunstreaker was experiencing the same thing he was. He hoped not, because if Sunny was having the same problems, there was absolutely no doubt in Sideswipe's processor that the Autobots currently had their hands full. Even though Sideswipe had to occasionally convince himself that his twin was still alive and not offlined somewhere – mostly because there was no actual pain assaulting him where there should be if Sunstreaker were dead – he was certain Sunstreaker was not rationalizing the same. His brother, though he'd never admit it, relied heavily on Sideswipe. He was the only mech he claimed to have any tolerance of. That wasn't entirely true, but Sideswipe was more an anchor for Sunstreaker, than Sunny was for him (though not by much), simply because the yellow warrior could not put up with most others for very long. Without Sideswipe conscious and fully present in the bond, Sunstreaker could totally lose it and he'd do so alarmingly fast. It took longer for Sideswipe to become unhinged because he would seek comfort from the others and they would keep him grounded just a little longer than what he could manage on his own.

If Sunstreaker was currently experiencing the same, horrible emptiness as he, he hoped the others had escaped mostly undamaged and Ratchet was keeping him in stasis and under careful monitoring. While Sunstreaker never truly meant to hurt his fellow Autobots, that didn't change the fact that he could cause some serious damage. The command element always did their best to avoid such situations, but sometimes they were just too slow to act and someone else would end up joining Sunstreaker on his inevitable trip to the medbay. When someone ended up badly damaged by his twin's servo, punishment was usually dealt out once Sideswipe was conscious again. It usually involved Sunstreaker being sent to the brig for a couple of solar cycles. Some bots understood that the punishment was necessary, even though Sunstreaker was never rational when he hurt his fellow Autobots. They understood that, too. But the command element couldn't allow him to go on without some form of punishment, because it wouldn't send the right message to the others.

So Sunny would find himself confined for awhile, but Sideswipe, who was almost always on restricted duty after being in the medbay, would inevitably go down to the brig and spend time with his twin until his punishment came to an end.

Sideswipe had only ever received a similar punishment once. That had been the time he'd put Cliffjumper through a wall. Sunstreaker had done just as Sideswipe had done on all those occasions where the yellow twin was sent to the brig – he'd spent the duration of his punishment with him.

It wasn't as critical that Sunstreaker be with Sideswipe then. He could handle being on his own for a few solar cycles. But Sunstreaker hated the solitude, hated the quiet, and even though it was usually only a short time that he spent in the brig, the loneliness would creep into his spark and become unbearable in a very short time. It was almost ironic, really. Sunstreaker claimed he could do everything on his own, that he never needed help from anyone, not even his brother. He always claimed that he feared nothing. But that wasn't true. He feared being alone. It dated back to the beginnings of the war, when mechs Sunstreaker had actually considered friends were quickly killed off, leaving the twins with no one but each other. That was another reason Sunstreaker refused to get along with anyone. Why get attached to bots you inevitably would lose? He kept his distance to protect his spark from the unbearable feeling of loss that he had become so familiar with over the vorns. If he didn't let others worm their way into his spark, it wouldn't hurt as much when they died. They were in a war - death was the only conceivable outcome for a majority of them.

Loneliness, for Sunstreaker, was the worst feeling he could ever experience. The first time the yellow warrior had been confined to the brig, Sideswipe had felt the pain resonate through their bond as waves of torment that lapped against him, and no matter how much of a front Sunstreaker had tried to put on, he could never fully block the emotion from his twin. So Sideswipe vowed to always be there during his punishment so his brother would never have to experience such spark-wrenching feelings.

That was why he _had_ to get back. He couldn't let Sunstreaker feel those terrible things, not while he was still around to prevent it.

He took a step back from Skywarp, hands still up in front of him, posture relaxed and hunched in, making his frame look even smaller. He didn't know why he thought something like that would work. Skywarp was a Decepticon. Weak just meant he was easier to destroy.

"Come on, Skywarp. Calm down. We really don't have time for you to go losing your mind right now." Sideswipe almost laughed at himself. He'd nearly lost it shortly before the seeker had.

The jet growled. "It's your fault. I knew I shouldn't have teamed up with you, even for such a short time. I'm going to kill you for what you did to Thundercracker!"

The jet made to lunge and Sideswipe knew he would seriously end up scrapped if he didn't snap the seeker out of his maddened state.

"That's not Thundercracker!" He cried.

That succeeded in halting the jet before he could actually move.

"What are you talking about? Of course that's Th-"

"Will you fragging shut up and _listen_ to me. That's not Thundercracker. It's a giant boulder that's shaped like a sack! You're hallucinating, just like I was earlier when I thought I saw Sunstreaker."

Skywarp's features softened a little bit as he puzzled this over. He looked back and forth between the sack-shaped boulder and Sideswipe, whose features were hardened in complete seriousness.

Slowly, realization dawned on the seeker. "That's...not...Thundercracker..."

Sideswipe didn't change his posture. He kept himself looking small and feeble. Skywarp was only just starting to get the fact that his trinemate wasn't actually there into his processor and the slightest hint of a threat from the red twin would likely push him right back over the edge into insanity.

Instead he said, calmly, "No, that's not Thundercracker. None of your trine is here. Sunstreaker's not here. Our processors are playing tricks on us. That's all."

All the hostility drained from Skywarp's frame.

Sideswipe cautiously righted himself, dropping his servos to his side. He didn't approach his companion, though.

"You okay now?"

Skywarp nodded and moved over to the boulder. He grimaced down at it and Sideswipe could tell the jet was trying to understand what had just happened.

"You wanna tell me what happened back there? You completely lost it."

Skywarp turned his head up, a slight frown on his faceplate. "I'm pretty sure it's just my processor glitching due to being out of the air for so long." He nodded to himself, looking back to the boulder. "Yes, of course. That must be the problem."

"So this is normal? You see things after you've been stuck on the ground for too long?" That would be useful information for later battles, but Sideswipe didn't think he ever wanted to deal with a totally berserk Skywarp again. He was starting to understand just why the Decepticons did their best to avoid confrontations with him or Sunstreaker when the other was knocked into stasis. Skywarp had been downright _scary_.

The purple jet shook his head. "I'm not sure, honestly. I've never been grounded this long before." He looked up at the sky. During their altercation, night had fallen. "I'm able to go flying whenever I want under normal circumstances, but obviously I don't have that luxury right now. I've never actually experienced withdrawal for longer than a few cycles before."

"Personally," Sideswipe started, head tilted as he thought it through, "I don't think this is normal. Don't – no, let me finish." He brought up a servo to silence Skywarp, who looked like he wanted to interject. "Don't forget, you're not the only one who's been seeing things. And I don't suffer from sky withdrawal, not being a flyer and all. I thought I could attribute seeing Sunstreaker all over the slagging place to the emptiness on his side of the bond. I was even starting to think he might actually be offlined, though I'm positive that he's fine. At least, I'm positive for the moment."

"What do you mean?"

Sideswipe heaved air through his intakes and crossed his arms over his chassis. How much did he want to reveal of his limitations to the seeker? They had agreed to cooperate with one another, but they were still enemies. It took only a klik for him to decided that now was not the time to be keeping things to himself, especially when there was such a major risk of the two of them offlining each other without even really meaning to.

"Before I ran into you, I had already convinced myself that Sunstreaker was fine and the reasoning behind the conclusion was sound. However, before you went and lost it over a boulder, my certainty slipped and I started to question it again. I'm not one who's prone to panic, but I started to then."

"What's your point?" The seeker snapped.

"My point, is that something is messing with our processors, causing us to see things that aren't there, causing us to panic for absolutely no reason. I don't know about you, but the damage I've sustained over the last solar cycle isn't enough to explain any of that. I'm also entirely unable to access a majority of my programs. I can't get anything to function right, which makes no sense because I'm online and my most basic programming should not be having problems functioning. I simply can't exclude the possibility that there's something _wrong _with this island. Unless you're not experiencing any of the problems I am."

Sideswipe raised a brow ridge, waiting for Skywarp to tell him he was wrong. That he was fine and that the red twin was an idiot who was simply malfunctioning. But the denial didn't come.

Instead, Skywarp nodded almost imperceptibly. "I'm inclined to agree. I'm having issues getting my own programing to function and it can not immediately be explained by the minimal damage I've received. I'm not sure I'm ready to blame a giant rock sitting in the middle of the ocean for everything, though."

Sideswipe shrugged. "It's the best theory I've got right now."

"So, what do we do? I can't pretend that this may not happen again. And just because you haven't completely lost it yet, doesn't mean that you won't. I can't say I'm thrilled with the prospect of having to deal with you when that happens. And I know it's only going to be a matter of time until it does."

Sideswipe understood that. It wasn't a matter of _if_, but a matter of _when_.

"I guess we'll just have to cross that road when we get there. There isn't a whole lot we can do about it right now."

Skywarp smirked. "If you go completely insane on me, I feel it's only fair that I warn you that I won't hesitate to kill you."

Sideswipe returned the grin, satisfied that he was out of immediate danger for the moment. "Don't worry, Skywarp. I've heard just how bad I can get from the other Autobots once I lose it and there's no doubt in my mind that you wouldn't stand a chance anyway."

He pretended to ignore the frown the seeker offered him and moved by him, eager to continue on their journey. The jet followed behind him for about a breem, apparently lost in thought, before pushing past him to take the lead again. With all the times they had to stop, it would be a miracle if they made it to their destination before they scrapped each other, or worse...something on the island did.

"Hey," he called ahead, "you think we should stop to recharge soon?"

"No."

Sideswipe huffed at the general lack of a reply. "No? Why no? I'm pretty drained and I'm sure you are, too."

He pulled up to walk just behind the seeker. He noticed that the purple jet seemed uneasy, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder.

Sideswipe suppressed his chuckle. "Awww, is Skywarp afraid of the big, bad island?"

Skywarp glared at him before looking back again, worry edging in on his faceplate. When he spoke, his voice was hardly above a whisper. "I'm seeing Starscream."

Sideswipe nearly tripped over his own peds. He managed to stay upright, though the motion had caused him to fall slightly behind. He jogged to catch up.

"You're seeing Screamer? Right now?"

Skywarp nodded.

"Where do you see him?"

The purple jet looked over his shoulder, nearly causing Sideswipe to walk into him as he did so, and the red warrior suddenly realized _why _the jet kept looking behind them.

Skywarp sucked air into his intakes in a low hiss. His optics locked onto something behind them. Apparently, he hadn't heard the twin.

"Is he behind us? Is that why you keep looking back over your shoulder like a frightened sparkling?" If he could have, Sideswipe would have rolled his optic. "Trust me, it's fine. I kept seeing Sunstreaker off to one side earlier. Just ignore him and continue on."

"I...can't."

"And why not?"

"Because he doesn't disappear when I turn to get a better look, like your slagging twin did for you." A pause that seemed to raise the uneasiness that Sideswipe felt every time Skywarp looked behind them. "Starscream's following us."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: As always, reviewers and subscribers, you are the best. It's because of you that I update this every week. ^_^

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><p>For the fifth time, Sideswipe nearly walked right into Skywarp as the jet turned his head to glance behind them.<p>

"Seriously," he huffed, "just ignore him and focus on where you're going."

Skywarp's frame was tense and he visibly hunched in on himself. Sideswipe could tell he was becoming unhinged once more and he knew he had to do something before the seeker completely lost his mind again.

"Just think about something else. That might help. If you remember that the Starscream you're seeing isn't real, you'll be okay." It felt odd, consoling a bot he would just start trying to kill again the klik things were back to normal.

"It's not that easy." Skywarp's reply was a whisper. "I know he's not real, I do. It's just, my processor is so muddled that every time I convince myself that Starscream isn't really there, I quickly forget that it's just a figment of my imagination and I have to start the whole cycle over again."

Sideswipe understood all too well what he was talking about. He'd undergone the same thing not too long ago, though he didn't lose it quite so quickly, as Skywarp clearly was. He wondered how long he had before the slag really hit the fan. He didn't think he could keep rationalizing the situation for too much longer.

"There's got to be something you can do to keep your processor from dwelling on the Not-Starscream."

"Well, I could scrap you. That should help, though I'm positive that would only end up being a temporary solution."

Sideswipe couldn't help but grin. Of course, under normal circumstances, Skywarp would have been entirely serious, but he knew he had nothing to worry about, at least not while the jet was truly conscious of what he was doing. He was certain that Skywarp was growing to rely on having another bot to talk to. Sideswipe would never admit it out loud, but he was happy to have some company, even if there were a million other bots he'd rather have with him.

Skywarp looked at him and scoffed when he noticed the grin.

Sideswipe was suddenly struck with an idea. He pushed forward until he was directly behind the purple jet. He would have preferred to have been walking beside him, but the forest made that impossible.

"So, uh, what do Decepticons do for fun in their downtime?"

The look the jet gave him made him grin. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

"Yeah. I figure a decent conversation might actually keep your mind off...things." He'd almost said Starscream's name, but stopped himself. He was trying to stop the purple jet from thinking about the figment following them and mentioning his name would fail to accomplish that.

Skywarp groaned. "We're always working. There's always something to be done."

"Really? What about when you're not on duty? Surely you do _something_ for fun."

"Not really. Sometimes I'll go flying with my trine, when we all have time off together, but usually we have separate shifts. I guess I usually just preoccupy myself the best way I know how."

"Which is?"

A grin lit up Skywarp's faceplate. "I usually just mess with the other Decepticons, bar a few exceptions who I'm not stupid enough to cross."

"When you say 'mess with', do you mean you-"

"I get bored easily. So I play pranks to keep things amusing. If I didn't, everything would be dull all the time."

At that, Sideswipe laughed. "You prank the others in your faction? No kidding? Man, you're a 'Con after my own spark, Skywarp."

The seeker regarded him with a raised optic ridge, but he said nothing.

"I do the same thing. The base can get sooo dull at times. Someone has to keep the bots on their peds."

Skywarp actually laughed. "Exactly! That's how I justify it, anyway. That and the results are usually hilarious. I once painted what looked like human facial hair on Thundercracker's faceplate. He didn't know it for the longest time, even though every time he entered a room, someone would point and laugh. Of course, he failed to see the humor once he realized what I had done. I had to avoid him for a few solar cycles after that. He's usually so laid back, but I thought he actually was going to scrap me for a little while."

"Really? Kinda wish I could've seen that. I once painted Mirage in his _exact_ colors with Earth paint. It was a pain in the aft, but it was worth it in the end. I had to catch him in recharge, and he's a light sleeper. I had to work lightly and quickly so he wouldn't wake up and because of that, the paint application was a little sloppy, but not noticeably so. Anyway, unlike Cybertronian paint, Earth paints don't bond to the metal in our forms, meaning that whenever Mirage would go invisible, we'd all still see him because his Cybertronian cloaking ability couldn't hide the paint. At first, when he went invisible, he didn't realize we could still see him. He has this habit of cloaking himself when he wants to be left alone, which is fairly often, so everyone thought it so amusing when he couldn't just disappear that no one said anything to him. I think it was Gears who eventually told him we could all still see him, the little aft. I would have loved to have seen that whole thing continue on a little longer. Mirage was mortified, of course; he thought he was malfunctioning. He was in the medbay for an entire solar cycle while Ratchet ran tests on him trying to find what was wrong, though he didn't find anything. Eventually, he ended up in the washracks and all the paint washed right off. Mirage prides himself in being all noble and calm, but I swear, neighboring planets heard his shriek of outrage."

And then they were both laughing and Sideswipe decided that he enjoyed having a civil conversation with Skywarp. Pit, if there was no war, he had no doubt that the two of them might actually be friends. He frowned at that thought, knowing that when the war finally ended, neither of them would likely be among the functioning.

He brushed the thought aside. There was no point in dwelling on what couldn't be changed.

"So that's it? That's all you do in your free time?" He didn't know why he was asking, since it wasn't like he did much else, either.

Skywarp huffed. "Well, we can't all be like you Autobots, babysitting disgusting organics all the time."

"Hey, that's only a small fraction of what we do, and thankfully, I don't usually have 'babysitting' duty. That usually falls to Bumblebee."

"That the yellow minibot?"

"Yeah, that's 'Bee."

"You all have the stupidest designations on this planet. Why would he take a designation that makes him sound like he's a disgusting _insect_?"

"Honestly? I think it's just meant to be a play on words. His alt form is a VW Bug. I think he chose the designation because of that, since a bumblebee is a yellow Earth bug." Sideswipe shrugged.

"That's stupid. Decepticon designations are just our original Cybertronian ones, but translated into English. They're straightforward and to the point."

"Yeah, but they lack originality. I mean, Skywarp? There's absolutely no creativity in that. I mean, you fly in the sky and you can warp. Booooring."

Sideswipe grinned at the look Skywarp flashed him. At least the jet wasn't looking back over his shoulder anymore.

"So? We're not trying to impress humans with cutesy names. For instance, that green tracker, what's his name? Hound?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's taken on the name of animals Earthlings keep as pets. Might as well be one, with how you let them walk all over you." He snorted in disgust.

"Yeah, well what about Thundercracker? That one's just as boring as your designation."

He noted the slight twinge of the seeker's left optic. He was no doubt recalling the scene he'd hallucinated earlier. Thankfully, he didn't linger on it for too long,

"Boring? How so?" He asked with genuine interest.

Sideswipe grunted as the ground suddenly slanted upward and he had to lean forward as he moved. It was pretty steep and he nearly slid back a few feet, struggling to maintain his balance on the incline, but he wouldn't let that bother him. Skywarp was pushing forward with what appeared to be minimal effort, so he'd be slagged if he showed that the incline was providing him with any difficulty.

It was already hard enough to see where they were going, thanks to nightfall. Both had found, miraculously, that their nightbeams actually still functioned, allowing them to greatly illuminate the path in front of them. It made things a little better than traveling in the pitch black of night, but not by much. The trees were still cluttered fairly tight together, causing the light to travel only a few yards. The surrounding flora cast unnerving shadows back at them, but they continued onward without mentioning the further tricks that were being played by their processors.

"Thundercracker's special ability is creating sonic booms, which sound like thunder claps. So he's cracking thunder. Oh, _real clever_."

Skywarp made a sound that sounded like a snort. "Okay then. Cliffjumper, that red minibot that looks similar to the yellow insect."

Sideswipe ignored the jab at Bumblebee. It wasn't like he cared what Skywarp thought of their designations. He was surprised he hadn't trashed on him or Sunstreaker yet, though he thought that maybe it was because he actually somewhat liked their designations. Most of the Autobots did. They'd been particularly clever when choosing them. Sideswipe chose his name for his sneaky nature and for his speed. He'd be up on an enemy before they had any idea what was happening. In his alt mode, he could drive his enemies into a ditch before they could even slam on the brakes. And Sunstreaker chose his name because of how vain he was, though the name was _perfectly _accurate, something all the Autobots agreed on. Sunstreaker may have been obsessed with his looks, but he was for good reason. He was definitely nice to look at, though most didn't talk about it. There was no need to further fuel the yellow front liner's ego. Sunstreaker chose his designation, one, because of his color, and two, his speed, which was only slightly less than Sideswipe's. When Sunstreaker went racing past, all you saw was a streak of yellow, like a stream of sunlight. It was really quite impressive.

"Well?"

Sideswipe started and realized that Skywarp was waiting for a reply. He hadn't realized he had been temporarily lost in his own thoughts.

"Well what?" He tried to sound irritated, but failed.

Skywarp didn't have any such trouble. "Well, what about Cliffjumper? What's the story behind his designation?"

"Oh. Cliffjumper fancies himself as something of a daredevil, which I guess one might consider him such. There are humans who will jump off of cliffs and bridges, with nothing but a thing called a bungee cord attached to them. They do it to prove how brave they are. Cliffjumper chose his designation in representation of that. What about Starscre-"

He cut himself off before he could finish saying the name, though it didn't matter. The damage had been done. He came to an abrupt halt only a klik after Skywarp.

_Stupid. Stupid!_

He had been following his general progression through the seeker's names. It hadn't occurred to him to skip over Starscream. Now the teleporter was growing paranoid again. And he'd been doing such a good job keeping his mind off their nonexistent stalker.

Skywarp glanced behind them, then and Sideswipe almost groaned when he saw him bristle. Apparently, the Not-Starscream was still following them. Great.

The two of them continued on in silence after that. Sideswipe wanted to try starting up a new conversation, but he wasn't sure if it would help again. He could feel the tension rolling off of the seeker in front of him in waves and he chastised himself harshly for being the cause. He wanted to live through the night and that was going to be incredibly difficult with Skywarp on edge and growing increasingly unstable.

And then it happened. Again.

He almost stopped walking this time, when the glint of yellow was caught at the edge of his nightbeam. His head whipped around and there was Sunstreaker, walking on his same trajectory, off slightly to the right. But this time his brother was different. He noticed with a wide stare that Sunstreaker was limping. His left leg was sparking, twisted and bent horribly near his thigh joint, and spilling energon at an alarming rate. There was a servo sized hole in his chassis to the immediate right of his spark chamber, his right arm swung limply at his side, attached to his shoulder by only a handful of cables, and one of his head fins was missing.

Sideswipe felt as if ice had frozen in his intakes and he spluttered, open mouthed, as he struggled to convince himself that what he was seeing wasn't real. His servos clenched tightly into fists and he fought back the urge to run to his brother, to help him. There was no one to help. Sunstreaker _wasn't real_. But it was proving difficult to accept, even in the face of what he knew to be truth and he was beginning to understand why Skywarp had had such trouble telling himself the same. Something was fogging in his processor, blending reality with fantasy until he had trouble distinguishing what was right and what was not.

He couldn't reason with himself. All he could do was follow along after Skywarp, and keep a wary optic on his brother, as well.

/~/

Skywarp's jaw was clenched painfully tight. Every breem or so he'd look back over his shoulder, hoping beyond reason that Starscream was no longer there. But every time he turned, there was his trine leader, following along, not too far off from the Autobot. A smug smirk was stretched across his faceplate, eerily sinister in the shadows cast by his highbeam. He growled deep in his chassis, servos clenching and unclenching as he moved as quickly as his body would allow him up the steep incline of the mountain's base.

Why was this happening to him? _Why? _He couldn't even begin to understand what was happening to his systems at that moment.

Another glance back over shoulder and he felt something in himself snap.

"Make him stop. Make him _stop_!" Skywarp spun on his peds and advanced on Starscream, no longer fully understanding that he wasn't in fact there.

He didn't feel his fist connect, but he watched with abject horror as Starscream's head snapped back in a sickening way and he crumpled to the ground.

Skywarp's optics widened and he took a step back.

_What did I do? What did I do?_

His spark tightened in his chassis as he stared down at the prone form of his Air Commander. His intakes cycled air in rapid bursts and he felt his processor flood with guilt and doubt and _pain_. His frame grew limp and he slumped, his legs growing weak underneath his weight. He would've fallen to his knees, but instead he found himself on his back, wings grinding painfully into the dirt. But he wasn't even aware of it. He was in too much shock to really register he was being attacked.

/~/

_Sunny!_

Sideswipe was stunned. One klik he'd been trailing Skywarp while occasionally glancing over at his brother, then the next thing he knew, the purple jet was shouting out in a frantic manner. He watched numbly as Skywarp rounded and sent a fist flying into Sunstreaker's faceplate. His neck snapped back in a sickening manner and instantly, Sunstreaker was lying on the ground, not moving.

There was only a moment of uncertainty before his processor was completely engulfed in a fog of pain and hate. Before he could register his own actions, he was on top of Skywarp, pummeling his fists into the dazed seeker's faceplate. A feral scream escaped his vocalizer and he slammed his servos down, over and over and over again.

And then the haze started to lessen and he realized that Skywarp wasn't fighting back. The jet looked so horribly pained that Sideswipe actually recoiled, propelling his frame back and away. The pain he saw in Skywarp's optics was not from the physical onslaught the red twin had just delivered. It was a different kind of pain entirely, one of loss. Skywarp had no attachment to Sunstreaker or himself, so there was no reason for him to be looking that way.

That was the thought that finally permeated his muddled processor. He looked around, expecting to still see Sunstreaker, but his brother was gone. No. He'd never been there in the first place and Sideswipe felt like the biggest idiot on the planet. Why was it so hard to accept that what they were seeing wasn't real?

He fell backwards and onto his aft. His intakes heaved and his good optic flickered briefly before stabilizing again. He watched absently as Skywarp seemed to return to himself, as well, frame now littered with dozens of new dents. There was a tear in the metal just beneath his cockpit and it was slowly leaking energon. The jet winced when he gently probed the area with his fingers. The wound didn't look too bad, but the damage was hard to see in the false light of his highbeam. He caught Skywarp's optics and the two of them just stared at each other.

Simultaneously, they acknowledged what the other was thinking.

"We're going to kill each other."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: My longest chapter to date! Same as always, thanks to my reviewers and subscribers. Seriously, reading what you all have to say makes writing this story worthwhile.

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><p>For awhile, neither of them moved. They simply stared at each other.<p>

Sideswipe had no doubt that Skywarp was thinking along the same lines as him at that moment. The red warrior honestly couldn't care if Skywarp ended up offlined. He was a 'Con, after all, so why should he care? They'd been trying to kill each other for several millenia and a brief team up on an unknown island was not going to change that. Sideswipe expected he'd end up offlined before the end of the war, anyway. He and Sunstreaker were front liners, meaning that they took the brunt of the damage dished out to the Autobots. It was their _job_. And both of them had silently accepted that they'd end up dead before they ever saw peace again. And Sideswipe was okay with that. Pit, no one lived forever.

What did bother him, though, was the thought of offlining in the middle of nowhere, where no one would ever find him. Where his frame would be left to rust and degrade on some backwater planet. The Autobots would have to know he was dead, though, because Sunstreaker would offline shortly after he did, so at least no one would ever wonder if he was still online somewhere. He wondered if they were even looking for him now. He was just one Autobot and it wouldn't make sense to waste time and resources trying to find him. But then, Autobots did not abandon their own.

_I wonder if Starscream and Thundercracker are out looking for Skywarp,_ he thought.

He'd been in enough battles with the Decepticons to know that if one was left behind, then he was on his own. But still, trine was important and it wasn't like a seeker could be easily replaced now. They were becoming a fairly rare breed. The command trine would have an easier time replacing a lost member than most, considering how high they were in rank, but that didn't change the fact that most seekers that were still online were already in trines. A lone seeker didn't usually last long in battle, meaning it was hard to find a replacement should one ever be needed. A duo had a better chance of survival than a single seeker, but they flew in threes for a reason. A trine had to be complete for it to function properly. Still, he doubted Megatron would care. He might even try to rip another trine apart to make sure his command trine was whole.

Sideswipe internally flinched at that thought. He didn't know a great deal about how trines worked, but he knew enough. And he knew that Megatron didn't care how trines were formed. All that mattered was that the Decepticon machine continued to function without a hitch. While Starscream and Thundercracker would probably seek to rescue their stranded trinemate, Megatron would not likely approve. Skywarp's rescue was definitely not set in stone.

Sideswipe knew the purple jet was thinking the same thing and was going over his chances of rescue in his processor.

"So..." he let the word stretch on in the silence.

"So, what?" Skywarp's optics narrowed. His wings stretched behind his back before moving to settle down perpendicular to his frame, looking almost like a butterflies wings flapping. It was no doubt a nervous twitch.

"So, what do we do now? We obviously can't just continue on as we are. There's just was too much at risk."

Skywarp actually looked lost for a moment as he thought it through. "I, uh, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. It's safe to assume that we're both just going to get worse the longer we spend trapped on this Primus-forsaken rock. And as much as I would love to see you offlined and lying broken at my peds, I acknowledge that that would not be helpful to either of us."

Sideswipe made a sound somewhat like a snort. "Nice to know that I'm useful."

The seeker smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't say you're useful. But offlining the only other bot with a shot at getting off this rock would be a bad idea, I think. If the Autobots ever find you, I strongly doubt that they'll leave me behind to rust."

"Which, I gotta say, kinda sucks. I mean, if the Decepticons get here first – unlikely as that may be – I'll either be scrapped on sight, or worse. I'll be left behind."

Skywarp shrugged. "Not my problem."

"Yeah, yeah. I knew this alliance was shaky at best, so I can't say I'm surprised by your indifference." Sideswipe noticed a tree branch a few feet off to one side and picked it up, twirling it slowly between his fingers. He jabbed it into the ground a couple times like a sullen sparkling, before using the branch to draw lines in the dirt.

The edges of Skywarp's mouth dipped up in a sneer as he watched him. Boredom eventually got the better of him, however and he snapped a low-hanging branch off a nearby tree. He turned it over and over in his servos, taking note of all the grooves in the wood. Eventually, he too started drawing in the dirt.

Sideswipe almost laughed. The two of them looked like a couple of organic children playing in the mud. They doodled in silence for several breems, before Skywarp hurled the branch away from himself in disgust.

"All right," he snapped, "what are we going to do?"

Sideswipe looked up at him with indifference. "Well, I think the first thing we need to establish is whether or not either of us is seeing anything right now." He looked around them. "I'm not currently seeing Sunstreaker. What about you? Is Starscream still hovering somewhere nearby?"

The jet glanced about uneasily, his frame tensing as he did so. He relaxed after about a klik and turned back to the red twin.

He shook his head, relief evident in his voice. "No, he's not here."

Sideswipe gave him a small nod. "Then honestly, I suggest we try to recharge. At least a little."

Skywarp bristled at the suggestion, unease slipping back into his posture. "No."

Sideswipe pushed air through his intakes. "And why not? The last time I suggested it you were against it. I'm starting to run really low on energy and don't try to tell me that you're not. You're having a worse time than I am, being stuck on the ground and all. A little recharge may do us some good."

The seeker shook his head again. "I can't deny that I want to rest, but..."

"But?" Sideswipe was growing impatient.

"What if we go into recharge and never come out of it? What if we offline in our sleep?"

Sideswipe honestly hadn't thought of that. He considered it then, running various scenarios through his processor. He couldn't deny that them never coming out of recharge was a definite possibility. But he also couldn't deny that the both of them needed rest, desperately. The longer they spent awake, the more fragged their processors would become. But all the rest in the world would mean incredibly little if they were to offline when they powered down.

"All right, we won't recharge. But, you do realize the increased risk we're going to pose to one another don't you?"

"Of course I know." Skywarp hissed. In the false light of Sideswipe's highbeam, he could see just how tired the seeker looked.

The red twin climbed to his peds and Skywarp followed suit. If they weren't going to allow their systems to recharge, then there was no point in sitting around doing nothing. They stared awkwardly at each other for a klik.

"Well?" Sideswipe wanted to get going, otherwise he was strongly reconsidering letting himself fall into recharge, consequences be damned.

Skywarp grunted and turned, once more leading the way up the mountain's steep incline.

Absolutely no words passed between them as the made their way through the trees, but nothing had to be said, not once Skywarp started glancing off to each side, optics bright and wary in the darkness.

Sideswipe was sure that he was seeing something again, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Primus, he was tired. What he wouldn't do for just a power nap.

He was thinking about recharge and how nice it would be when the buzzing started. His head whipped about as he tried to locate the source of the noise, but the cause was not immediately apparent. It began as a very low pitched hum, something he could barely hear but still felt terribly loud in the encompassing silence of the forest. His intakes hitched and he spun on his peds, walking backwards a few steps before he turned back around.

Up ahead, Skywarp was just as nervous, glancing all around him as he moved.

"Do you hear that?" The red front liner called up to him.

Skywarp rounded, optics wide with panic. He nodded slowly, his frame trembling as if from exertion.

"What-what is it?" The jet's voice cracked when he spoke and Sideswipe found he had to strain to hear him.

"I don't know." A sense of urgency suddenly overtook him. "We need to keep moving!"

They picked up the pace, walking as fast as the dense cluster of trees would allow. They glanced over their shoulders every couple of kliks, neither of them sure what they were running from, or if they were running from anything at all. The buzzing steadily rose in volume and when Sideswipe tried to call out to Skywarp again, the seeker didn't respond. He realized that he couldn't even hear himself over the horrific noise and without realizing it, he broke into a jog, keeping sight of Skywarp as the jet did the same.

The buzzing seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once and despite how hard he tried to focus, Sideswipe could not pinpoint the exact location of the noise. Terror gripped his spark and it didn't even occur to him that he had started running. He raced past Skywarp, who couldn't break into a full run due to his larger size, fueled on only by the need to escape whatever was causing the buzzing. But no matter how fast or how far he went, the sound only continued to grow until the panic was more than Sideswipe could handle. He skidded to a stop, his one good optic flickering and wide. He spun on his peds in quick half circles, desperate and afraid. His knees bent in anticipation and his servos rose to hover a few inches from his chassis. His spark thrummed painfully and he screamed, the buzzing still growing louder with each passing nano-klik.

And then it was gone. Sideswipe could hear the ragged panting of his intakes in the new found quiet and he was suddenly aware of the tremors wracking through his frame. He heard a rustling of leaves off to one side and he spun, his fear reaching new heights as he struggled to control himself. Through the dense fog that hovered in his processor, he watched as Skywarp bounded into view, coming to an abrupt halt when he noticed him. He was just as shaken as Sideswipe, looking like he might rattle apart at any klik.

_What's a Decepticon doing here?_ The thought flitted through his processor.

No, wait...that wasn't right. The Decepticon was supposed to be there...wasn't he?

They stared at each other, both unsure what to do.

Skywarp was the first to figure it out. He growled, his optics narrowing into slits.

"Fancy meeting an Autobot here. What luck."

Sideswipe thought about how odd that statement was, though he couldn't quite figure out why it was so strange. He shrugged it off.

"We're in the middle of a battle, genius. Why would it be so surprising that you encounter me?"

The jet was taken aback. "I'm not sure..." He was flustered for a moment, but it passed. "Whatever! It's not like it's important. I'm going to offline you here and now!"

"Really? Sunstreaker is never too far off from me. You sure you wanna risk it?"

Skywarp snarled. "Where your twin is doesn't concern me in the slightest. My trine will be here shortly and we can easily handle the two of you."

"Oh yeah? As I recall, the three of you are pretty evenly matched with the two of us. So I wouldn't claim victory jus-"

The purple jet charged at him and he dodged to the side, avoiding him as he crashed through the surrounding trees. Skywarp snarled and turned, quickly closing the distance between them.

The red twin went on the offensive, lunging at the larger bot and knocking him off his feet. They grappled and rolled in the dirt, kicking and punching at each other when an opening presented itself. They both gave as good as they got, not willing to be the first to yield.

Sideswipe screamed when a particularly vicious blow caused the armor covering his left arm to crack. The sudden onset of pain caused his mind to clear and he was suddenly struck with a thought that he couldn't reason through.

_Not right. This isn't right._

Of course it was right. This was what Autobots and Decepticons did. They fought until only one was standing or someone called for a retreat. Usually the latter.

Then why was there some nagging doubt currently niggling at the back of his processor? It made no sense.

Brushing the doubt aside, he wrenched his fist back and slammed into into the seeker's faceplate, relishing the slight scream that escaped from his enemy's vocalizer. Skywarp was dazed and Sideswipe used the opportunity to slam his fist down again and again. He was going to slam his servo down one last time, aiming for the sensitive wiring of the seeker's throat, but something stopped him. He recoiled from the battered flyer, who was definitely worse for wear, but would recover soon enough.

_This is wrong. This is WRONG._

He couldn't shake the feeling that it would be wrong to offline the seeker in that moment. Which made no sense. They were enemies... He should be totally fine with offlining the purple jet, so why did he stop himself? Why didn't he end it right then when it would have been easy?

Clarity flashed briefly through him and he took several steps back, his balance off as he scrambled to increase the distance between them. Nothing was right. Nothing about their current situation made any sense. How had he gotten there? Why was he there? Where was Sunstreaker? Why couldn't he feel him in their bond?

Skywarp sat up slowly, groaning as he rubbed gently at his faceplate. His eyes locked on Sideswipe and he growled, the recognition all but gone from his optics.

The front liner knew that he had to get away then, no matter what. He turned on shaky peds and bolted, pushing through the foliage as fast as he possibly could, hearing the indignant scream of rage that bellowed behind him.

It all flooded back to him then. There was something wrong with the island, something that was causing both Skywarp and himself to unravel. He understood in that moment that his only chance of staying alive long enough to make it back to Sunstreaker and the other Autobots was to put as much distance between himself and his unwilling companion. He couldn't allow himself to die here and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he wouldn't let Skywarp die here, either. No bot deserved the horrors they were experiencing and he swore he would not leave the jet here to suffer it any longer if he could help it, even if the Decepticon would never offer him the same consideration. Not that he even could anymore.

He felt his rationality slipping again and he forced himself to continue up the mountain. Even as his ability to reason through what was happening to him diminished, he held onto the thought that he needed to gain higher ground.

He didn't know why he had to climb the mountain or what would happen when he made it to wherever he needed to go, but one thing was absolutely certain, even in his muddled processor. It could very well be his only chance to make it off that island alive.

/-/

Thundercracker's fingers flew over the keyboard, inputting data into their systems that Soundwave's cassettes had retrieved during their last battle. Everything that they had learned would be used to aid them in future energy raids, so it was crucial that the information be uploaded as soon as possible.

Gradually, his fingers slowed in their typing as his thoughts returned to Skywarp. He'd hoped that immersing himself in his work would keep his processor from dwelling on things he couldn't help, but apparently he'd been hoping for too much. The strain on the trine bond was starting to become apparent and he was starting to become agitated. He was worried that if anyone tried to address him directly he might snap at them, but he was thankfully left alone. No one usually conversed when on their shifts unless absolutely necessary since it was frowned upon by Megatron. The Decepticons couldn't be productive if they were talking all the time. Not that many of them really liked talking to each other anyway.

Sure, there were little cliques within the faction, groups that would stick together most of the time, like Soundwave's cassettes, or the two trines, or even the various gestalt groups. But as a whole, the Decepticons did not really converse with one another unless it was considered a necessity or if there was a party and high grade involved.

His work forgotten, Thundercracker stared blankly at his terminal screen. He couldn't focus anymore, not with Skywarp now foremost in his thoughts. He did his best to input more of the data into the system but managed to accomplish very little. When he was finally relieved from his post by Soundwave, he couldn't help but feel the telepath was frowning at him from behind his face mask. He no doubt expected the data input to be done upon the completion of Thundercracker's shift. He said nothing, though and the seeker was sure it was only because of sympathy he possibly felt over their loss of Skywarp.

Most mechs thought Soundwave was incapable of feeling any kind of emotion, but Thundercracker believed otherwise. He was fiercely protective of his cassettes and if one of them wound up missing, there was no doubt in Thundercracker's processor that Soundwave would be just as distracted as he felt right then.

He didn't look at anyone as he left the command center, though he could feel several stares against his back. He ignored everyone he passed, checking his systems for the last time he'd logged Skywarp's location. If he'd teleported too far, he'd find nothing, but he felt hope that Skywarp hadn't actually gone all that far. Eventually his HUD pinged and he displayed the data. With a new lightness in his step, he realized he had something to go on. He chastised himself for not checking his log sooner, but he'd been ordered by Megatron to leave it alone and he didn't want to disobey a direct order. But now he was growing desperate. He eventually found himself outside of Starscream's quarters, unaware how he really got there. He'd been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't been paying attention to the direction he'd been heading in. The door slid open without him having to comm his trine leader, indicating that the tri-colored jet knew he was there. He must have been keeping tabs on him through the bond. Starscream didn't usually do that, but he was probably growing just as agitated as Thundercracker due to the lack of their third in the bond.

The blue seeker stepped over the threshold into Starscream's quarters and the door slid shut behind him, nearly clipping his heels in the process. He offered his Air Commander a little frown, but said nothing as he moved into the room. He took a seat on the nearby berth and watched Starscream in silence.

His trine leader was reading over a data pad and hadn't acknowledged him, but that was something he had long grown accustomed to. Starscream didn't usually greet those beneath him in rank, even if they were members of his trine. It had been irritating when he'd first been promoted, but Thundercracker had become used to it. It still irritated Skywarp at times, and if he felt slighted, he would usually harass Starscream until he felt better. Which could usually take awhile.

Thundercracker waited for the tri-colored jet to finish reading his data pad, but still said nothing even when Starscream set the pad down.

"So..." Starscream let the word trail on while he looked his trinemate over, obviously trying to read him.

"I'm starting to get restless. We need to do something." He cut straight to the point. He expected Starscream to argue with him, so he was surprised when he did the exact opposite.

"I agree. Do you have anything in mind?"

Thundercracker was slightly taken aback at that. Starscream almost never asked him for ideas, considering anything he came up with far superior to anything his trinemates could think up. Apparently, Starscream was worried about Skywarp enough to justify asking for ideas from someone else.

Thundercracker could barely contain his happiness when he spoke. "I logged him. His last known location, that is."

Starscream raised a brow ridge. "You realize Megatron ordered you to leave it alone? It's his belief that Skywarp will make it back to us and that if he doesn't it's his own fault for getting himself scrapped." His disdain was partially evident when he spoke. He hadn't been happy with the order, either. But then, Starscream was never usually happy with the orders Megatron gave him.

"I know what Megatron said, but he also thinks replacing a trine member constitutes as no big deal, when we both know it's anything but."

Starscream nodded. "So, where did you log him?"

"Somewhere in the Arctic Circle."

The immediate tenseness in Starscream's frame did not go unnoticed. Several millenia ago, his expedition partner, Skyfire, had been lost during a storm and trapped in ice in the Artic Circle. What Starscream perceived to be the shuttle's betrayal still did not sit well with him and the events of his past still caused him some unease. He never said so out loud, but Thundercracker knew that he still regretted not being able to save his old friend on that fateful day so long ago. Knowing where Skywarp had last been logged was only dredging up painful memories the Air Commander had fought so hard to keep buried.

Starscream did his best to hide the break in his voice. "Very well. I will arrange a simple recreational flight with Megatron. There will be absolutely no mention of Skywarp to anyone until we've found the idiot, understand?"

Thundercracker nodded and jumped to his peds, eager to get going.

"I'll need about 7 breems to arrange everything, so sit tight until then. I'll comm you when I'm ready."

He deflated a little and fell back onto the berth. "Can I just stay here until then?"

Starscream gave him a peevish look. "Fine, but keep quiet. And make sure you're prepared for the trip."

"Sure." Thundercracker grinned and started a routine check of his systems. When he was done he watched Starscream in silence, his thoughts racing. Would they find Skywarp? He hoped so. And if they didn't, he hoped their search would turn up _something_.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: Oh look, an update. Bet no one saw this coming. I totally forgot I had this chapter already done. Figured I'd go ahead and upload it. Please understand that this story is going on hiatus though. I really don't have the time to write for it right now. I'm not abandoning it and I do hope to start writing again at some point, but I dunno when that will be. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

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><p>Skyfire landed on the icy ground with a soft thud. He couldn't suppress the shiver that made it's way up his back strut as he surveyed the area. It hadn't been all that long ago that he'd been re-rescued from the ice by the Autobots. He'd been buried and put into stasis in this general area <em>twice. <em>He'd honestly hoped he'd never have to come back.

But now Sideswipe was missing and his last known location was at the exact coordinates Skyfire now found himself. He had promised to assist the Autobots, outside of combat of course, so how could he refuse to aid them now when one of there own was missing, just because he was afraid of a little snow and ice?

He wished there was someone else to do this sweep over the Arctic Circle, but really, who else was there? It wasn't as if the Autobots didn't have a nice group of flyers on their side, but none of them were equipped to handle the rough weather or the long distance that Skyfire was. Which put him in the unfortunate position he now found himself in. He hoped, that if Sideswipe was stuck somewhere in the Arctic Circle, that he would be able to find him quickly. He wanted to spend as little time there as possible and the sooner he found the red front liner, the sooner he could get out of there and return to the nice, warm Autobot base.

He fought back a second shiver that threatened to run through his systems and activated his thrusters. The ice beneath his peds melted almost instantly as he slowly lifted off the ground. He activated his external sensors, trying to see if he could locate any emergency beacons. He didn't expect to find any, though, so he wasn't disappointed when he was met with only silence. Obviously, he was going to have to start searching the old fashioned way. _Fantastic._

He transformed, rocketing off with a boom of his thrusters. It was hard to say how long he'd be out there looking, especially if he didn't locate Sideswipe quickly. He didn't want to abandon the twin and even though he had reservations against being out in the Arctic Circle all on his lonesome, he would not leave the warrior to suffer a fate much like the one he had suffered.

He didn't like that he was all by himself on this mission. He'd hoped Optimus Prime would have someone accompany him. Even if he had to chauffeur another Autobot around, the company would be so much better than having to go it alone. Without anyone to talk to, his thoughts were allowed to wander and he found himself thinking back to his first rescue from the ice.

He'd been so happy to see Starscream, even though he knew immediately something was off. He hadn't known how long he'd been trapped at the time, but he couldn't fight down the feeling that something was _wrong_, though he couldn't even begin to imagine what. The Starscream he remembered had been snappy and quick to anger, but he valued knowledge and science above all else. It didn't take long for him to realize that that Starscream died long before he had been freed from his icy prison. He didn't know what had changed him or why, but he realized that he could not be a pawn to the Decepticon war machine as his friend had become. It had pained him to turn against Starscream, but he would not allow himself to be used. And so their friendship came crashing to an end the second Skyfire turned to the Autobots.

He was just about to bank left and continue his search in another area when the sound of jet engines caused his intakes to hitch. The sound of a Cybertronian jet was distinctly different from that of an Earth-based one. His audio receptors could pick up the sound of two different flyers and he knew precisely who they were before he even saw them.

He transformed back to root mode just as Thundercracker and Starscream roared by. They obviously hadn't expected to see him, for they quickly pulled a U-turn and headed back in his general direction. He did _not _expect them to fire on him, but when they did, he hurried into his transformation sequence and took off. There was absolutely no way he could take them like this. Or at all, really. Both jets were faster than him and Starscream was fully outfitted for space flight, meaning Skyfire couldn't hope to escape them by leaving the atmosphere.

But he had to try to get away. He wasn't just going to let them use him for target practice.

The two of them overtook him with little effort, banking in the sky as they turned to once more engage him. As much as he hated the thought, he knew he was going to have to fire back or risk dying in the middle of nowhere. He wasn't built for speed or quick maneuvering but he managed to angle himself sharply to the side as they shot past overhead and he quickly fired upon them. He was grimly satisfied when one of his shots grazed Starscream's right wing, though the damage was superficial at best. However it had the desired effect of bringing the brief aerial battle to an end.

He transformed just as soon as his attackers did. For a moment they stared at each other, or in Starscream's case, _glared, _hovering several yards apart.

"What are _you_ doing out here?" The tri-colored jet snapped.

Skyfire replied coolly, "Looking for a lost Autobot. What about you? You're both a long way from home."

"Ha! I could say the same for you." Starscream didn't seem to be willing to offer the shuttle any sort of answer to his question and he looked quite content with possibly shooting him out of the sky, but Thundercracker was in no mood for games.

"We're looking for Skywarp. He's missing too."

"Thundercracker!" Starscream rounded on him, the feeling of betrayal perfectly evident in his vocalizer.

The blue jet merely shrugged. "What? The search would go a lot smoother and a _lot _faster with three pairs of optics instead of two."

Apparently Starscream couldn't deny the logic, for he just scoffed at his trinemate and turned back to face Skyfire.

"You know, given the circumstances, I wouldn't be adverse to a temporary alliance." The shuttle called over to them.

Starscream's glare intensified but he didn't snap back at him like he expected.

"I can't deny that Thundercracker's suggestion makes sense. So, for the time being we will work together, until we locate our missing comrades. But know this _Autobot,_" that last word was said in a hiss, "once this truce is over, I will not hesitate to extinguish your spark."

Skyfire couldn't deny that hearing such vehemence in regards to himself from the mouth of his old friend stung, but he knew that the past was the past and nothing could make things go back to the way they had been.

"That is acceptable. Our truce will last until we have located our wayward affiliates."

He wondered just how long it would be until their alliance came to an end.

/~/

Sideswipe's rationality slipped in and out. One klik he'd know exactly where he was and what he was trying to do, but the next, he'd be moving in a daze, willing himself to move for reasons he could not understand. The moments where everything made sense had become shorter and less frequent and in those passing fits of understanding he assessed the newly acquired damage to his frame. He didn't dare stop, though. He knew he was being chased and if he allowed himself even a brief respite, that could very well spell the end for him.

As he moved up the incline, he looked down at his knee. It had been relatively numb for the past day, but after his latest skirmish with Skywarp, the patch he'd put in place had been torn open and the damage was worse than it had been for the initial wound. He grimaced at the sight of energon leaking down his damaged limb and realized that he was leaving a trail. While Skywarp was far worse off than he, it stood to reason that if Sideswipe was having moments of clarity, than so was the Decepticon. While Skywarp, in moments of sanity, would follow him simply because he needed a heading and following him was better than nothing, the moment he slipped again, the seeker would no doubt attack. Sideswipe just couldn't risk taking on any more damage and despite having sworn to himself to help get Skywarp off the island, he couldn't very well help the jet if he was dead.

Cursing softly, he came to a stop. He needed to patch the oozing wound in his knee and he needed to do it fast. He didn't even want to stop at all, but looking back over his shoulder and seeing the distinctive trail he was leaving, he knew he had no choice.

Finding a sturdy tree, he braced his back against it and slowly and gently slid to the ground. He pulled his knee up to his chassis and surveyed the damage. His only functioning optic flickered and went dark for a klik and panic seized at his spark. If he went blind, then he was done for. Thankfully, the loss of sight was only temporary and soon he could see again, even if he still had a terrible lack of depth perception.

He stuck two fingers into the tear on his knee and hissed. It _hurt_. There was still some numbness, but the new damage was in areas where he was still receptive to pain. He carefully withdrew his servo from the injury and wiped the wet energon off on his thigh. He did his best to push the tear closed and then pulled a welding torch from his subspace. Even with a new patch, the injury would still bleed, but at least the energon would not leak out and leave a trail. It wasn't a very bright idea, for if left alone for too long, the energon would damage his internal wiring making it very likely that he could lose the use of his leg entirely. However, it was a risk he had to take.

He fired up the torch and aimed it at his knee. He winced at the flood of pain, but pushed through it as best he could. Thinking he'd made some progress with the patch, he pulled the torch back to see. He growled low in his chassis. The gash was still open and oozing and all the torch had succeeded in doing was drying some of the energon in a sticky, burnt mess. The wound was still open and the continuing leak made it impossible to seal the site. He set the torch down and tried to push the metal around the tear further together in an effort to stem the flow of energon, but his fingers had become slick with his lifeblood and could not find purchase on the metal. He growled, realizing that there was no way he could keep himself from leaving a trail. He'd wasted precious time and come out with nothing to show for it.

He used the tree for support as he climbed back to his peds, but froze before he could move.

_What...what am I doing here? Where am I?_

Everything shot out of focus and he felt dizzy. His head spun and his knees buckled and he clung onto the tree as if it was the only thing keeping him alive.

The moment passed almost as quickly as it had come on and Sideswipe found he was able to stand without the support of the tree. His intakes heaved and he looked around. He still had no idea where he was or what was happening to him, but something in his processor urged him to move, to continue up the incline laid out before him.

He was all too happy to oblige the feeling when the sound of someone moving through the trees behind him met his audio receptors. He thought the noise sounded a little ways off, but he soon realized how wrong he was when Skywarp came crashing through the trees, actually uprooting one in his rage when he locked optics on Sideswipe.

That was all the incentive he needed to move. He was off in a run before he even registered it, blind panic numbing him to the pain that flared up his damaged leg. He weaved and dodged through the trees, hearing as Skywarp raced behind him. The jet had difficulty maneuvering in the enclosed space, but Sideswipe was smaller and quicker on the ground and did not face such problems. He quickly pulled away, the distance between the two of them growing.

As the terror receded from his processor, the pain in his knee was pushed to the forefront of his thoughts. He sucked air through his intakes as his leg threatened to give out beneath him but through some miracle he did not tumble over into a heap in the dirt. He looked down at the injury as he limped on, wondering how he'd gotten it. Had Skywarp somehow caused the damage to him? Why didn't he remember what had happened to him? Why was one of his optics offline?

Question after question presented itself to him and it terrified him to learn that he had no answers for any of them. He was so confused, so lost in his own uncertainty that he walked straight into a rock wall. He stumbled back a few steps and looked up, optic widening at the sight of the cliff face before him. The thing was massive by human standards, though not an impossible climb to a Cybertronian. Still, he hadn't been expecting it so the sight of it took him by surprise. He glanced down at his injured knee and wondered if it would be able to support his weight if he attempted to make the climb. Knowing Skywarp was somewhere not too far behind him, he decided to take the risk.

He started slowly, at first, moving one arm, then one leg, and then resting where he was suspended over the ground. His knee groaned in protest and his ascent was further inhibited by his damaged optic. He was forced to climb in the pitch black of night and the looming forest, unable to use his highbeam to aid him as it was pressed firmly up against the cliff face. He sped up his movements only a little when he'd made it halfway up the rock wall, but he still kept his movements measured and steady, knowing one wrong move could send him plummeting back towards the ground. If that were to happen, he had no doubt the fall would cripple him, leaving him stuck until Skywarp eventually found him and offlined him. He could not allow that to happen. He refused to die there, wherever _there_ was.

Right arm, right leg, left arm, left leg. Cautiously he climbed, never daring to look down. His feeling of vertigo was bad enough without him having to make it worse. He already felt like he might purge his tanks and only the sheer force of his will kept him from doing so. The cliff face was all he knew in that moment, refusing to let his processor wander to other things. He had to keep himself focused, had to climb.

He nearly cried out in relief when his servo fell flat on the ground atop the cliff. He pulled himself up and over the ledge and rested on his back, optic flashing and threatening to go dark. It stabilized after several kliks and it was then that Sideswipe was aware that it wasn't as dark. He sat up, looking all around him, noting that the trees atop the cliff were spread much further apart. He could actually see the horizon off to his right and it was with a sense of elation that he noticed the sun was starting to rise, lighting up the surrounding area in a fiery glow. His optic flickered again and he knew it was starting to fail. His vision was blurred and it was becoming harder to make out his surroundings.

He turned his head from side to side, trying to see if there was anything distinctive amongst the blurring shapes filling his sight.

Nothing...no, wait...

As the sky grew brighter with the rising sun, he saw it. At first he didn't know what it was, but his optic slid back into focus long enough for him to figure it out.

It was a radio tower.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Don't own; wish I did.

A/N: Woo, so glad I finished this chapter! The last bit just did not want to cooperate with me. Anyhoo, I hope you all enjoy this. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. :)

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><p>Sideswipe stood in front of the radio tower, noting how the thing towered over him. It was huge.<p>

He circled the tower, not entirely sure what he was looking for. The thing was about three times his size and appeared to have been standing for some time. The metal was rusting and corroded, no doubt from having withstood the elements on Earth for several decades. His spark clenched with worry as he wondered if this would be his fate - left alone to wither into a state of complete disrepair.

It was when his ability to reason started slipping from him again that he saw it. A panel low on the right side of the tower, no higher than a human's midsection. He got down on his good knee, being careful not to further jostle the injured one and he felt around, trying to find a way to pry the metal covering open. He fumbled with the smooth surface until he finally managed to slip a single finger through a small opening. He gave a slight tug and the panel tore free, weakened from years of rusting. He threw the small piece of red-brown metal to the ground and zoomed in with his good optic.

Frayed wires were connected to various jacks. He wasn't sure what they did, but based on how they looked, he was certain they were no longer functional. In a fit of anger, he slammed his fist into the ground. He had hoped he could use the tower to radio for help, but he knew that would be an impossibility. He fell back onto his aft, hands splayed out in the dirt beside him, and he stared up at the tower.

His optic widened when he realized exactly what he was looking at.

_Solar panels!_

Even if the communications array was no longer operational, the very fact that there were solar panels attached to the radio tower meant that it was self sustaining. He looked off at the horizon, where the sun was starting to rise. The tower was old, probably at least 50 Earth years and unlike Cybertronian constructs, things built by humans didn't last very long. Was the tower able to hold a charge throughout the night? Or had time taken its toll, allowing the tower only enough energy to power itself for a couple hours after dark? He couldn't be certain. The fact that the wiring inside the communication array was completely shot made him question if it was even worth trying. Still, he couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was the only chance he had. Even if he couldn't radio out, if the tower still held a charge, he could jack into it and re-power his systems.

He climbed back onto his peds and crouched down as low as he could get to the panel. He pulled a cable from underneath his wrist armor and found a tiny port hidden beneath the damaged wires. He plugged in and felt an immediate rush of energy course through him. There was still a charge in the tower, and a massive one at that! He allowed the energy to flow into him and felt his head clear completely as his systems started to reboot. Programming he'd been unable to access since he'd been stranded on the island slowly began to power up. His bad optic flickered, but did not regain it's sight, clearly too damaged even with the power boost to function. Still, everything else seemed to be cooperating. He almost whooped with joy.

The elation he felt was completely overshadowed by the sudden, spark shattering opening of his bond with his brother. It felt like he was just punched and it was a good thing he wasn't standing, otherwise the sudden pouring in of feeling from the other side of the bond would have knocked him to the ground.

_Sunny!_

Sunstreaker was there. He was alive. And if he had the ability to shed tears, Sideswipe knew he would be bawling like a human infant right at that moment.

So many different feelings flooded him then. Happiness, confusion, love, and pain. But it was good pain. Pain born from the violent opening of their bond and it was the best feeling Sideswipe could ever remember feeling in his life. Having been denied something he needed, to suddenly have it thrown back at him was such an unbearably wonderful sensation.

He sent waves through the bond he shared with Sunstreaker and received muted pulses back. Sunstreaker was obviously in stasis. No surprise there, considering how his twin must have been behaving with him gone.

It was strange. For the first time since Sideswipe had awoken on the island, his processor was perfectly clear. He remembered everything that had happened between Skywarp and himself and...

_Oh slag, I almost forgot. Skywarp is still so deranged that he'll do whatever it takes to kill me. Maybe if I can get him to hook up to this tower to siphon off some of the energy, he might start to come back to himself, too. It's gotta be worth a shot, anyway._

He sent several more pulses to his brother through their bond, still reeling from the onslaught on his systems. The pulses were little more than feelings being conveyed through their link and each one was different, holding everything Sideswipe had been feeling for the last solar cycle. Sunstreaker was running on automatic right then, being stuck in stasis and all. The pulses Sideswipe received conveyed confusion and dulled happiness that would no doubt magnify the klik Sunstreaker came out of stasis. He couldn't even care that his twin wasn't all there in the bond. The fact that he was there at all meant the world to Sideswipe.

It wasn't long before he could tell that Sunstreaker was becoming more conscious. The pulses from the other end of the bond began to grow stronger and then there was suddenly such unrestrained joy assaulting him that he couldn't keep himself grounded and he fell backwards. He didn't have far to travel, thankfully, considering he was crouching pretty close to the ground.

A message pinged on his HUD and he smiled when he read it. His comm link with the Autobots was back online. Now he could radio in and tell them where he was. They'd be able to pinpoint his location and he'd be rescued in no time. Finally things were starting to look up.

Or so he'd thought.

Skywarp chose that exact moment to lunge up and over the cliff edge that Sideswipe had scaled earlier. The jet was deranged, his face twisted into an angry, feral snarl that told the red front liner that he was looking for blood. The purple seeker wasted no time. With a shriek that nearly had Sideswipe offlining his audio receptors, Skywarp charged him, the ground shaking with every ped-fall.

He was vaguely aware of the burst of panic he sent through the bond and the concern that was fed right back to him, but he had no time to think. Without any hesitation, Sideswipe unplugged himself from the radio tower and rolled to the side, keeping his weight off his bad knee joint. He was going to pull his weapon from subspace, surely that would be working now, too, but the thought left him as soon as he had it. He spluttered and forgot everything around him, everything but his bond that had just fizzled into nothingness once more.

He didn't understand. Why had it been forced shut again? He would have taken the time to really think it over, if a certain seeker did not choose that exact moment to tackle him to the ground. He offered him a swift punch to the faceplate and shook him off, flipping his body up and back as he did so. Now that there was space between them, he felt he could weigh his options.

More than anything and beyond all reason, he wanted to plug back into the tower, to see if the bond would flood back open again. But he knew that was little more than a suicide attempt, what with the deranged seeker eying him the way he was. And then there was the matter of his systems. They'd started to boot up again, but with the power source severed from him, everything was halted and crashing quickly. The fog was back, too, settling over his processor like a thick blanket. He could feel his reasoning slowly slipping from him and he knew he had to run. He had to get away before Skywarp attacked him again. If he could lure the seeker away from the radio tower and then come back when the coast was clear, he could reconnect his systems and siphon off more energy. He couldn't believe he'd taken so much and it still wasn't enough.

Decision made, Sideswipe made his move. He ripped a tree from the ground, his joints protesting at the action and hurled it with all his might at the purple jet. He watched as Skywarp brought up his servos to bat it aside, giving him the opening he needed. He charged forward, leaping up off the ground when he was directly in front of the jet and lashed out with his left arm. It connected with the seeker's neck cables and knocked him flat on his back. He landed atop his chassis and didn't wait for Skywarp to gather his wits. He lashed out and delivered what had to have been painful blows to the flyer's wings, leaving behind nasty looking dents that would no doubt make it impossible to fly if the seeker ever managed to get his systems back online.

Skywarp howled beneath him and he was off, tearing through the trees that no longer provided him with much cover. This high up, they grew much further apart, making it impossible to hide. He could only hope that what he'd done would allow him to put enough distance between them that he could circle back around and return to the radio tower.

So far, though, luck just wasn't on his side.

/~/

"Ratchet! Ratchet!"

The screams caught him completely off guard. They were frantic and if he didn't know better, he would think someone was being brought in in critical condition and at serious risk of offlining. But he did know better and he recognized Sunstreaker's voice and the light euphoria that leaked into it. How the front liner had managed to override his forced stasis was beyond the medic, but he had no doubt that the yellow twin was completely out of his processor right then.

He'd left the medbay and entered his office only a breem ago. He'd been hoping to catch up on his case documentation, but that apparently wasn't going to happen.

With a groan, Ratchet rubbed a hand down his face, not wanting to deal with the chaos that was certain to greet him in the medbay. But he couldn't just leave Sunstreaker as he was. He sent a quick comm to Optimus, alerting him that he would need help. With a heavy expulsion of air, Ratchet turned on his peds and returned to the main area of the medbay where Sunstreaker was still hooked up to various machines and completely conscious. He was not, as Ratchet had expected, completely off the wall.

Sunstreaker was sitting up, his feet dangling over the side of the medical berth, his optics wide and the ghost of a smirk trailing across his faceplate.

Ratchet nearly did a double take. He most certainly had not been expecting that.

"Sideswipe's alive. He's okay. Ratch' I know where he is, I-"

"Woah, Sunstreaker, calm down." He brought up his servos in a placating gesture, though he was no longer concerned that things would get out of hand. "I need you to relax, all right?"

The yellow warrior opened his mouth to say something, just as the door to the medbay slid open. Jazz rushed in, weapon drawn, Prowl and Optimus following cautiously after him. The second Sunstreaker saw them, his optics narrowed and he climbed down from his berth, stance turning hostile. It didn't matter that they were on the same team, Sunstreaker just did not like being approached in such a manner.

Ratchet quickly intervened, stepping in front of his patient. "False alarm, Sunstreaker seems to be fine. Jazz, put the gun away."

The saboteur looked to Optimus, who nodded in affirmation. Jazz complied and subspaced his weapon.

"And you. Back on the berth. Now." Ratchet ushered the front liner back to his berth and hooked him back up to the monitors he had earlier unhooked. "All right, Sunstreaker, tell me what happened."

And Sunstreaker did. He didn't remember much before he had awoken, but he did remember suddenly becoming aware, despite being stuck in stasis, the nano-klik his bond with his twin was forced open. The others visibly tensed when he mentioned that the bond had closed shortly after he'd awoken, but anxious relief took over as soon as he told them that the first thing he'd done was log his brother's coordinates.

Optimus chose that moment to step forward. "This is good news, Sunstreaker. We can give the exact location to Skyfire and he should be able to locate Sideswipe in no time."

He gave them the coordinates, but did not miss the frown on Prowl's faceplate.

"What?" His optics narrowed.

The statistician stepped forward, but looked to Optimus. "Skyfire is currently several thousand miles from that location. It would be best if we ordered him back to base to refuel and then sent him out again once he is rested."

Optimus Prime nodded. "Do you know where on Earth those coordinates are? The more we know about the area, the better prepared we will be."

Prowl stepped over to a nearby console and instructed Telatraan 1 to do a quick search. When the results popped up on the screen, he looked them over.

"It appears the coordinates are somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the state known as Florida. However, it would appear that there are no charted bodies of land at the precise location I inputted into Teletraan."

"Hmm. It is possible it is an island so small that the humans have yet to discover it." Optimus replied.

"I'm going."

Suddenly all optics were on Sunstreaker.

"Over my offlined frame." Ratchet snapped. "You're staying here where I can keep an optic on you. The last thing we need is for you going and getting yourself scrapped. The very fact that your bond with Sideswipe is muted is cause for concern. The longer you are unable to reach him, the more stress is put on your systems."

Sunstreaker snarled and rose to his peds. "I said I'm going."

"And I said you're not." Ratchet returned the warrior's glare, refusing to back down.

"Aw, c'mon doc-bot. He's not doing any good here. And honestly? If he does lose it, better out in the middle of nowhere than in here, right?" Jazz gave Ratchet a swift pat on the arm.

The medic deflated a little, but didn't lose the coldness in his optics. "Fine, but if anyone but Sideswipe comes back needing a trip to my medbay, you better believe I'm going to slag the lot of you."

"I hate to say this, but that may still be a possibility. Skywarp could still be with Sideswipe and I don't doubt there will be some kind of confrontation. Which is another good reason, ol' Sunshine should go with. Out of everyone here, he and Sideswipe are the most capable when it comes to handling the seekers."

Ratchet groaned. "All right, out of my medbay – not you Sunstreaker, sit back down. When Skyfire is ready to set out, _then_ you can come get this afthead. Until then, he stays here so I can keep watch on him. Got it?"

No one wanted to argue, though Sunstreaker did look like he wanted to say something. Really though, Ratchet could tell that the yellow twin just really wanted to find his brother, and he honestly couldn't fault him for that.


End file.
